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ON BOARD THE MINE- 
LAYING CRUISER 


THE 

World's War Series 

By COLONEL JAMES FISKE 

FIGHTING IN THE CLOUDS FOR FRANCE 
FACING THE GERMAN FOE 
ON BOARD THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 
UNDER FIRE FOR SERVIA 
THE BELGIANS TO THE FRONT 
IN RUSSIAN TRENCHES 

Each a stirring tale of adventure amid tb« 
scenes of the great 'European conflict. 

Bound in Cloth, 12mo. illustrated. 

Postpaid price, $.50 each 

THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO., 
Akron, Ohio 





umsm mm 


“All stations!” called Karl desperately, in the official code. 

(Page 177) 


World’s War Series Volume 3 

On Board The 
Mine-Laying Cruiser 

\y C\-T{ \yiit(loi A 

Colonel James Fiske 

X 

Illustrated by E. A. FURMAN 


THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY 

CHICAGO AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK 



Copyright, 19 IS 

The Saalfield Publishing Company 


MAR 19 1915 

.•'■Jr ^ « 

©CI.A397205 

'*■0 / 


CONTENTS 


Chapter Page 

I Historic Ground 11 

II The Marching Soldiers 23 

III The Shadow of War 37 

IV A Dangerous Trick 49 

V A Lucky Chance 61 

VI Helgoland 75 

VII Active Service 89 

VIII Volunteers Accepted 101 

IX In the Fog 113 

X The Rescue from the Sea 127 

XI The Enemy’s Country 139 

XII A Change of Clothes 153 

Xni A Windfall 167 

XIV On the Beach 179 

XV The Message of the Searchlight 193 

XVT In the Air Again 205 

XVTI The Blow from the Air 217 

XV TTT The Last Ordeal 231 





On Board The 
Mine-Laying Cruiser 

CHAPTER I 

HISTORIC GROUND 

Two boys walking along a dusty country road, 
stout sticks in their hands, knapsacks on their 
backs, turned a corner in the road and saw the 
water of a quiet river glistening before them like 
a ribbon of silver, tinged with all the colors of the 
rainbow in the light of the setting sun. 

“The Meuse !” said one. 

‘ ‘ The Meuse ? Really, Karl ? ’ ’ echoed the other. 
“Then that smoke over there — V 9 
He pointed to the northwest. 

“Is from the houses of Sedan!” Karl Adler 
completed his friend’s sentence. 

For a moment they were silent. There were 
memories in the sight of that river for these boys 

— Karl Adler and Heinrich von Kunst. They had 

11 


12 


ON BOARD 


trudged from beyond the Rhine to see it. And of 
late every foot of their way had carried them 
through ground that they knew almost by heart. 
The names of the villages spoke to them of the 
days of 1870, when other Germans had trodden 
these same roads before them, and when many 
and many a German had stayed behind, for the 
honor of the fatherland. And now they were ap- 
proaching the scene of the climax of the wonder 
year. The smoke, curling so peacefully from the 
chimney-tops of Sedan, melted away over the 
ground that had been hidden nearly forty years 
before by the different smoke of battle. In the 
fields about them the iron ring of Prussia and 
Bavaria, of Saxony and Baden had closed about 
the French. This very road, on those days of 
battle, had been swept by an iron hail of bullets 
and cannon balls. 

It was Heinrich who roused himself first from 
the spell that the scene cast over them both. 

“Come on, Karl,” he said. “It’s getting late. 
If we are to find a good place to stay in Sedan, we 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


13 


had better be going along. They sup early, these 
French people.” 

4 ‘Yes, I suppose so,” said Karl dreamily. “I 
think I shall almost know the houses, if they have 
not changed them too much, Heinrich. My grand- 
father has often told me of the house in which he 
slept on the night that the French emperor sur- 
rendered. I should like very much to stay there 
to-night. ’ ’ 

“As for me,” said Heinrich, “I don’t care 
where we stay, so long as there is much food and 
a soft bed to sleep on. I am tired!” 

“So am I,” confessed Karl. ‘ ‘Well, we have an 
excuse for being tired, Heinrich. We have 
tramped a good many miles since we left home. 
And to-day it was the longest stage of all. We 
were up at six this morning, you remember. But 
I wanted to sleep in Sedan to-night.” 

“We’re going to,” said Heinrich. “We’d bet- 
ter not let the Frenchies see too much of how we 
feel, though. They remember Sedan, too. Poor 
people! But it was their own fault. They forced 


14 


ON BOARD 


us to go to war back in the year of 1870.” 

“And they will force the Kaiser to go to war 
again some day, Heinrich. They want to get 
Elsass and Lethringen back — Alsace and Lor- 
raine, they call the provinces that we took from 
them. ’ ’ 

“Didn’t they get enough the first time, I 
wonder?” asked Heinrich. “Well, we shall see! 
We need not be afraid with one like our Kaiser 
to guard the empire. See, Karl! I remember this 
spot from what I have heard. It was here that 
one regiment held back a French division for 
three hours until the reserves came up. They 
were trying to fight their way by, but they could 
not cross the river — or when they crossed, they 
were pushed back at once.” 

And so they walked along, in scenes that were 
full of the most vivid sort of historical interest, 
since it was history that had been made almost 
in their own time. It was on these fields, along 
the banks of this river, that the country they were 
so proud of had really established itself. It was 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


15 


the great victory of Sedan, when the last free 
army of France had been crushed and captured, 
that had made the triumph of Prussia and her 
allies possible, and so led to the crowning of the 
emperor at Versailles while his guns thundered 
at the defenses of Paris in the last act of the 
great war. 

Karl and Heinrich, fellow students in the gym- 
nasium of their home city of Dusseldorf, and fel- 
low members, also, of the Pfadfinder of that city, 
as the Boy Scouts are called in Germany, had 
elected this summer to enjoy a walking tour dur- 
ing their vacation. They had long planned such 
a vacation, but not until this year had it been 
decided that they were to be trusted to leave home 
by themselves. But they found the pleasures of 
the trip far exceeded their anticipations, and long 
waiting had not dulled their enjoyment of the 
freedom from restraint that they had felt when 
they were once off. 

Both of them were beginning to think of the 
time when they would enter the army in the 


16 


ON BOARD 


service of the Kaiser and the empire. Both 
wanted to be officers, but neither of them was yet 
quite sure that he would be able to gratify that 
ambition. But they would be soldiers, for even 
now each was big and strong, and sure to pass 
the rigid physical examination without which no 
German: soldier is enlisted. For them service in 
the army was to be expected, as a matter of course. 
Every German boy expects to serve his term with 
the colors, and most of them look forward eagerly 
to the years of soldiering. 

It was natural, therefore, that when they 
planned their trip, Karl and Heinrich should have 
wished to see the battlefields of the last great war 
in which the Germans had fought. They had 
taken the train to Karlsruhe, and thence had 
begun their walk. Their course had taken them 
through Weissenburg, where the first pitched 
battle of the great war had been fought; thence 
through Woerth and the heights of Speichern, fol- 
lowing the path of the great army that von 
Moltke had led into what was then French terri- 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


17 


tory. They had seen Metz, now a vast German 
fortress, in which forty-fonr years before Marshal 
Bazaine, hailed as the greatest general in Europe, 
had been locked np by the Red Prince, Frederick 
Charles of Prussia. They had seen the terrible 
fields of Gravelotte and Vienville-Mars le Tour, 
where pleasant villages now stood again, and the 
grain was in the fields ripening for the harvest. 
And so they had come to Sedan, where the mar- 
velous summer campaign of 1870 had ended in the 
complete and dazzling triumph of German arms. 

Next day they would see the field where the last 
heroic charge of the Cuirassiers of France had 
been made — the final desperate effort of the 
French army to escape from the trap that German 
bravery had forced it to enter. 

But for the night there was nothing for them to 
do but sleep, after they had eaten. 

“I have wondered sometimes,” said Heinrich, 
as they neared Sedan, “what these French people 
would think if they knew that our grandfathers 
had fought against them in the war?” 


18 


ON BOARD 


“So have I,” said Karl, gravely. “After all, 
they do not know, I suppose, that they were in 
the wrong. They fought and they were beaten. 
It is easy for us to be friendly. But for them it 
must be very hard. Scarcely a family here in this 
country, I suppose, can fail to have legends of 
that invasion. And yet they have been kind to 
us. They have given us of their best, and you 
know that many of them would not let us pay.” 

“That’s so. And they must know that we are 
Germans. We don’t look like their boys, and I 
know that I don’t speak French like a native yet. 
My voice is German. So is yours, though you 
speak French better than I do, Karl.” 

“I don’t think so, Heinrich. Yes, they know 
that we are Germans, but I don’t think they are 
always thinking of war. Some of the French 
think of revenge — the officers mostly, I believe, in 
Paris. These people remember what war means. 
They are on the frontier. The older ones can re- 
member when battles were fought around their 
homes, and when whole villages were burned.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


19 


“Yes, and they are so near to Germany that 
perhaps they know how strong onr army is, and 
how it would come down upon them if there was 
war. I think you’re right, Karl, and that they 
are willing to let bygones he bygones. They are 
not such good fighters, the French.’ ’ 

“Don’t you believe that, Heinrich! My grand- 
father says the French soldiers were just as brave 
as our men, and fought just as well. He says 
they make as good troops as any in the world. 
But they were badly led, and they were not ready 
before, when they thought they were. That was 
why we beat them so easily. And really it was 
not so easy, after all — ” 

“Not easy? When the Germans didn’t lose 
a single real battle from the' beginning of the war 
to the end?” 

“No. Every battle was hard fought. At Mars 
le Tour even the King thought we had lost, and 
so did Prince Bismarck and Count von Moltke. 
If Bazaine had known how to lead as well as his 
men knew how to fight, we would have lost that 


20 


ON BOARD 


battle,’ ’ said Karl, who knew his history well. 

Then they came to Sedan. The house which 
Karl finally pointed out as the one in which his 
grandfather had slept after the surrender was 
empty now, and he could not gratify his wish to 
stay there. But they found another house where 
lodgings were to be had, without any difficulty, and 
here they got excellent food and good beds. But 
before they slept, just as they were finishing their 
meal, they had an experience that was curious and 
novel, and a little disquieting. A sergeant of 
police came in as they sat at the table, and ques- 
tioned them closely as to their names, their homes, 
and their destinations. He was perfectly agree- 
able, but it was the first time that anything of the 
sort had happened, and they were curious. They 
asked no questions in their turn, however, and the 
official seemed to be easily satisfied. 

“I wonder what that was for?” asked Heinrich, 
when they had gone to their room. 

“I don’t know,” said Karl, with knitted brows. 
“Perhaps he thought we were spies!” 


THE MINE-LAYING- CRUISER 


21 


“Then why didn't it happen anywhere else?" 

“I don't know," said Karl, again. “We 
haven't seen a newspaper since we left Karlsruhe, 
Heinrich. Do you suppose there can be any news 
that would account for it? They are always care- 
ful along the border, I suppose. But we are not 
near any fortress except Mezieres." 

“Well, I'm not going to lie awake thinking 
about it," said Heinrich. “That's one thing that 
is sure. Let's go to sleep, Karl. In the morning 
we can find out. ' ' 

“Perhaps another Zeppelin has flown across the 
border by mistake and been forced to land," said 
Karl. “Do you remember that one from Cologne 
did do that not so many months ago? It came 
down at Longwy, and they arrested the crew until 
the officials at Berlin had apologized and ex- 
plained that it was an accident. ' ' 

“Yes, I do remember it now, Karl. But even if 
that were so, what would we have to do with it? 
We shan't find out by staying awake, anyhow. 
Let's go to sleep. Good-night!" 




CHAPTER II 


THE MARCHING SOLDIERS 

Great events, indeed, had transpired while Karl 
and Heinrich had been tramping across country, 
cut off from newspapers and the news of the world. 
Austria ’s long slumbering rage at the aggressions 
of Servia, culminating, as Austria firmly believed, 
in the murder of the heir to the imperial throne as 
the result of a conspiracy which, according to the 
Austrian charge, Servia had deliberately fostered, 
had flamed out at last. She had made demands on 
Servia. Russia had backed the little state in its 
refusal to obey those demands. And now all 
Europe was struggling to bring about agreement. 
Nothing had actually been done as yet. Every 
country was waiting, holding its forces in leash, 
anxious that another should take the aggressor’s 
part, if aggression there was to be after the long 
peace. 

It was not strange that Karl and Heinrich should 
23 


24 


ON BOARD 


have been in ignorance of much that was almost 
common property in England and America. In 
Germany and, for that matter, in France, it was a 
secret game that the statesmen played. They had 
no mind to unchain the passions of the people, and 
so perhaps to allow a demand for war to arise that 
it might be impossible to ignore. Undoubtedly, 
as Heinrich and Karl were to know afterward, it 
was that fear of war that officials both in Berlin 
and in Paris held that had inspired the police in- 
quisition to which they were subjected. 

Mobilization had not yet been ordered, but each 
country was ready. A single word, and the order 
that would mean war would be flashed from one 
end of France to the other, from the Russian 
frontier of Germany to the last district in the 
corner between France and Switzerland. And 
what the common people did not know the of- 
ficials of all ranks and the police understood 
thoroughly. It was a time when on both sides of 
the border spies naturally might be expected to 
be active. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


25 


In the morning Karl and Heinrich got papers. 
But they were journals of the previous day, and 
there was little in them that was enlightening. 
Censors had been at work already. There were 
reports of the trouble between Austria and Servia, 
but there was little to show that the quarrel was 
more important than those that had come up so 
many times in the last few years — nothing to show 
that other powers were involved, much less that 
there might be war. 

And so, in that late J uly of 1914, the two German 
boys paid their reckoning and began their day’s 
tramp. They meant to go south and west, toward 
Bheims. They were anxious to see the famous 
cathedral. Rheims was to represent the limit of 
their journey into France and from that city they 
would turn east again, and walk back, through 
Chalons and Nancy, to the frontier at Avricourt, 
and on to Strassburg, where they would find a 
Rhine steamer to take them home. 

They were still on ground that was historic in 
a way, but with Sedan they left behind them the 


26 


ON BOARD 


last great battlefield of the war of 1870. The 
fighting in the territory they now entered had been 
more of a guerilla sort, and they found other 
things than thoughts of war and fighting to oc- 
cupy their minds.' They were coming into the 
famous grape country of France. All about them 
were vineyards, wuth the grapes, still green and 
small, clustered on the vines. The weather was 
delightful; the countryside they thought was 
beautiful. 

“ Let’s sleep in the open air to-night, Heinrich,’ ’ 
proposed Karl. “You know we planned to do 
that once or twice before we get back to Strass- 
burg. We can make an easy stage to-day, and 
rest a long time at noon. That’s the way the Boy 
Scouts do in England and America. We’ll make 
a camp fire and a lean-to.” 

“Splendid!” agreed Heinrich, enthusiastically. 
“We certainly can’t hope to find better weather. 
There ’s upfr a cloud in the sky. ’ ’ 

He looked up as he spoke, and his gaze remained 
fixed on the sky. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


27 


“Look up there, Karl!” he said. “Do you see 
— to the south ? It looks like aeroplanes — a lot of 
them, a regular flock.” 

“You’re right!” said Karl. “Why, there must 
be a dozen! No, there are more than that! 
They’re flying in a regular formation, too! I 
believe they must be military aeroplanes. All 
monoplanes — and they’re certainly flying fast, 
too!” 

There was no doubt of that. Only a minute 
before they had difficulty in distinguishing the 
specks in the sky, but now the great bird-like ma- 
chines were taking form. In a few minutes, while 
the two boys still were rooted to the spot, the 
flock swept over them, flying toward Verdun. 
They could count twenty of the machines, and as 
they passed above them they could hear the whir- 
ring of the propellers. 

“They must be having manoeuvres,” said 
Heinrich. 4 ‘ Don ’t they look splendid ? B^t we ’ve 
got them, too!” 

“Manoeuvres — yes,” said Karl, thoughtfully. 


28 


ON BOARD 


‘ 1 But it ’s not the regular time for them. I w onder, 
now, what they’re doing that for.” 

“Our men are always practicing,” said 
Heinrich. “It doesn’t mean anything in particu- 
lar, Karl. Come on! They’re almost out of sight 
now. If we’re going to camp out to-night, we’ve 
got to get some things. Eggs and milk, if we can, 
I think. We’ve got almost everything, haven’t 
we, in our packs except bread? We’ll need some 
of that, won’t we?” 

“It would be better, of course,” said Karl 
gravely, though he was much amused by his 
chum’s concern for their breakfast. “We won’t 
have any trouble getting what we need. We’ll 
find plenty of farmhouses everywhere if we’re not 
near a town, where they’ll be glad to sell us any- 
thing we want. There’s no need to burden our- 
selves with carrying anything until it begins tc 
get dark.” 

Twice more that day, as they tramped along, 
they saw flocks of aeroplanes flying, like the first, 
in a regular formation. And single monoplanes 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


29 


were so numerous that they paid no attention at 
all to them. Before the afternoon was over, even 
Heinrich admitted that the sight of so many fliers 
was unusual. 

“I don’t know what to make of it, but I think 
it ’s got something to do with that police sergeant 
who was so curious about us last night,” said 
Karl. 4 ‘Heinrich, I almost wish we were back in 
Germany ! 9 ’ 

“Why? What do you think is wrong, Karl?” 

“I don’t know, but I feel strange. As if some- 
thing were going to happen. Don’t you ever feel 
that way, without being able to tell what it is that 
you expect?” 

“No, I never do.” 

“Then I can’t make you understand. It is a 
sort of premonition. But I’m sure, anyway, that 
there is something in the air. I wish we knew 
more of what was going on.” 

“Well, we don’t, so there’s no use worrying over 
it. We can’t help it, can we? And if we can’t 
help it, we ’re only wasting time in thinking about 


30 


ON BOARD 


it! Look, Karl, there is a bird of a sort I never 
saw before. What do yon suppose it is? ” 

Karl was interested at once. The Pfadfinder of 
Germany, while they had not adopted all of the 
regulations and customs of the Boy Scouts in 
England and America by any means, had made a 
point of nature study, and all members were ex- 
pected to pay special attention to birds and ani- 
mals of a strange type that they might see when 
they were away from home. So now they began 
to observe such things more closely, and they 
found plenty that was new and interesting as they 
continued their tramp. They met French peas- 
ants from time to time, all of whom saluted them 
cheerfully and pleasantly. If their appearance, 
so plainly German, excited any comment, they 
did not hear of it. 

When it was beginning to grow dark they came 
to a field in the shadow of a little clump of woods 
that seemed to Karl an ideal place for their camp. 
Not far away was a farmhouse, and to this they 
went to make their purchases. They found it 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


31 


easy to buy all they wanted, — fresh eggs, a pail 
of sweet milk, and two long loaves of newly baked 
bread. And they got permission, also, to sleep in 
the field, although the peasant seemed shocked at 
the idea, and urged them most hospitably to share 
his roof for the night. 

“ There is plenty of room, ma foi!” he said. 
“Both my sons are away with the army — Francois 
in his first year, Emile in his second. Their room 
is empty, and you are welcome to it. No need to 
sleep out in the cold.” 

He seemed to think they were too poor to pay 
for lodgings. But Karl laughed. 

“It is not from necessity, but from choice,” he 
said. “We like to sleep in the open air. At home 
we do it often. ’ ’ 

“You like strange things,” said the farmer. 
“But if that is your pleasure, you are welcome to 
do it. Do not trample on the grain. That is all I 
ask.” 

And so they built their fire in a bare spot and 
cooked their dinner. Then they built a lean-to 


32 


ON BOARD 


against a stone wall, and got out the rubber 
blankets they carried in their packs. And when 
all their preparations for the night were made, 
they sat and talked of many things — of the father- 
land and its glorious history, and of the years that 
were coming in the army. 

* “We shall go up in the same year if we are not 
to be officers, Karl,” said Heinrich. “I hope that 
we will be assigned to the same regiment, perhaps 
to the same company. Then when we are men and 
soldiers, we shall swear blood brotherhood, nicht 
so?” 

“Yes, little Heinrich,” said Karl, affectionately. 
Though they were of almost the same age, Karl 
being only a few weeks the older, he had always 
taken the lead. Heinrich looked up to him in many 
ways, since Karl was stronger and more active. 
In all sorts of sport he was the leader and it was 
Heinrich’s delight to follow him. 

“Listen,” said Heinrich. “Is that an insect?” 

They looked up. 

“An insect of a sort — yes,” said Karl, dryly. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


33 


“It lias wings — but a man made them. It is the 
monoplanes. There goes one — I see another com- 
ing from Rheims. Heinrich, something is in the 
air. I feel as if great things were about to hap- 
pen. They tell us always that at any time there 
may be war — that the fatherland must always be 
prepared. Do you suppose — V 1 

“War? ” said Heinrich, getting up to follow the 
flight of the monoplane they had heard until it 
was out of sight. “Yes, they say there may be 
war at any time. But without warning, without 
talk, for weeks before? Do you think that 
possible! ” 

“It is the nation that strikes first and before its 
enemy is prepared that wins,” said Karl. “I do 
not know, Heinrich. There is a strange feeling 
that I have had all day. And the monoplanes. I 
wish we were safely home ! ’ 9 

Heinrich did not answer. He was a little awed 
by the way Karl spoke. He felt that Karl was 
seeing things, or feeling them, at least, that were 
beyond his ken. 


34 


ON BOARD 


“lam sleepy/ ’ he said. “Let us lie down now, 
and go to sleep. Good-night!” 

Karl smiled. 

“Lie down, then, and sleep, slothful one,” he 
said. “I will keep watch for a while. Let ue im- 
agine that we are in a hostile country. I will be 
sentinel. ’ ’ 

Soon Heinrich was asleep, but Karl sat brood- 
ing, his eyes looking past the fire into the dark- 
ness. Once or twice he dozed. But it was still 
very dark and there was much of the night left, 
when Heinrich awoke suddenly, startled by some- 
thing, to find the fire out and Karl missing. He 
did not cry out; he was still too sleepy to realize 
fully what he saw. And in a moment Karl came 
back. But he came crawling along the ground. 

“The fire is out!” said Heinrich. “I thought 
it would last all night.” 

“I stamped it out,” whispered Karl. “Listen, 
Heinrich! In the road, yonder, French soldiers 
have been passing for the last hour. For five 
minutes none have passed. But listen now!” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


35 


“I hear a strange sound,’ ’ said Heinrich, 
presently. He lifted puzzled eyes to Karl. 
“What is it, Karl?” 

“The tramp of marching feet,” said Karl. 
“More are coming. They are marching, thou- 
sands of them, with their red legs, toward the 
fatherland!” 


/ 



CHAPTER III 


THE SHADOW OF WAR 

In the faint light they stared at one another. 
Through each there passed a strange and mysteri- 
ous thrill. Was it coming, at last, the war that 
they had been taught to know must surely come 
sooner or later? What else could this mean? The 
steady sound of marching feet coming nearer, 
nearer all the time? There could be only one 
destination for French soldiers marching so — 
the frontier. Without a word, moved by the same 
thought, they crept to the edge of their field. 
They were a little above the road here and they 
could see it stretching away, grey and dim in the 
distance, into the heart of France, toward Ger- 
many. Over it there hung a little cloud of dust. 
And suddenly, as their eyes were focused on a 
turn in the road, the road itself was blotted out as 
they looked. 

Where it had been came men. Toward them 
37 


38 


ON BOARD 


they came, the beat of their measured marching 
sending waves of sound through the still night air, 
like the waves of the sea rolling in upon a sandy 
beach. Spellbound they watched. 

First came three officers on horseback. And 
behind them were the men. They marched along 
doggedly, cheerfully. Smiles were on their faces, 
young faces most of them — all of them, indeed. 
There were troops of the first line, the regulars of 
France, who were finishing their training with 
the colors. Now when they had been thinking 
about going back to civil life, back to their farms, 
their workshops, their counters, France had called 
them. A regiment passed. Then came guns, 
lumbering along. They had heard the heavier 
note of the guns before the pieces themselves had 
come in sight. But even so, the march was a 
silent one. There was no singing. German 
troops, except under the strictest orders for 
silence, would have raised their voices in song as 
they marched along. Not a bugle sounded. When 
any orders were to be given the officers passed 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


39 


them along to the sergeants in low, hushed voices. 

For hours they watched, and still the troops 
were passing. The first hint of dawn crept into 
the eastern sky. Over Germany, the dearly loved 
fatherland, the sun was rising now. Finally the 
last French soldier had passed. 

“How many have gone by?” asked Heinrich, 
awed. i ‘ 1 could not count them . ’ 9 

“I did not try,” said Karl. It was a relief to 
be able to speak again in a natural tone. “But I 
watched the organizations. It is a whole division 
that has passed, except for its cavalry. That may 
be on another road. Nearly twenty thousand men 
— the infantry and the guns of a division, half an 
army corps. They are marching from Chalons, I 
think. They must be going to Verdun, where the 
French have a strong garrison already.” 

He was very thoughtful. 

“That is strange; that is curious,” he said. 
“Always I have heard that the first fighting would 
not be on the eastern frontier; that the French 
would advance through Belgium, perhaps through 


40 


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Luxemburg. Yet they are sending their troops 
this way instead of toward the sea, to the north. ’ ’ 

“Karl, you speak as though this meant war!” 

“It does,” said Karl. “I am sure of it, 
Heinrich. We do not know what has happened. 
We have seen few newspapers, and if we had seen 
them there might be little within. And we have 
talked only to peasants. We can scarcely guess 
what we might have learned if we had been at 
home. I am sure of this much: some great crisis 
has developed in these days when we have been 
walking. If war has not been declared, it is a 
matter of hours.” 

Karl did not speak enthusiastically, as some 
boys might have done. His voice was sober, and 
Heinrich was just as grave. Yet there was no 
fear in his voice, either, nor in his friend’s manner. 
These boys knew something of what war might 
mean. Each of them was thinking of men they 
knew, only a few years older than they, who 
within a few days might be facing the soldiers 
they had seen passing, guns in hand. They were 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


41 


calling tlie roll mentally of the relatives who 
would be gone when they reached Dusseldorf 
again. Heinrich’s brother was a captain in a 
regiment of Uhlans; Karl’s uncle commanded a 
regiment stationed, with its corps, at Konigsberg 
and their fathers would go, too. To them war was 
not a glorious thing that would not really touch 
them. It would come home to them in all its 
meaning, as it would to every family in the father- 
land. 

“Karl!” said Heinrich, suddenly. “If there is 
war, will they let us go home?” 

‘ ‘ I hope so, ’ ’ said Karl, seriously. ‘ 4 1 have been 
thinking of that, Heinrich, since I saw the first 
soldier pass along this road. We are not old 
enough to fight, it is true. But that is not the only 
reason for keeping us in France. They might 
think that we had seen things that no foreigner 
would be allowed to see. And, even if they were 
willing for us to go, we could not return as we 
have come. There will be new battlefields along 
the Meuse, Heinrich. If the armies bar our way 


42 


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then we must think of some other road to travel. ’ ’ 
“But perhaps it does not mean war,” said 
Heinrich. “We have been told before that war 
was coming, and it has been a false alarm. ’ * 
“This time we have been told nothing,” said 
Karl grimly. “That makes it look worse to me 
than if there had been much talk. I think we are 
in a tight place, Heinrich. But so long as we are 
here, let us keep our eyes open. Who knows? 
Even you and I might learn something that the 
fatherland would find it useful to know. ’ ’ 

“What can we learn, Karl? We could not get 
near a fortress, especially now. And we have had 
spies at work, have we not?” 

“I suppose so,” said Karl. “Still, there are 
things for us to do. Whenever I could, while 
those troops were passing, I tried to get the num- 
bers of the regiments. If we see soldiers to-day, 
let us be sure to try to find out what regiments 
they belong to, and remember where we saw men 
of those regiments.” 


“What good would that do?” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


43 


“ You said our spies had been at work, Heinrich. 
I believe that our general staff knows every regi- 
ment in every French corps just as I suppose the 
French know all about where our men are sta- 
tioned — that such-and-such a regiment belongs to 
such a corps, and is stationed at Strassburg, or 
Coblenz, or Cologne. Think, then. If we could 
tell, when we get back to Germany, where we had 
seen men of this French regiment or that, the of- 
ficers we told would know where certain corps 
were being sent. Can ’t you see how valuable that 
would be?” 

“Oh, yes. I was stupid, Karl! They would 
know, then, that one corps was moving toward 
Verdun or Belfort, and we would send troops 
enough to care for it. Yes, I understand. I will 
write down the regiments as I see their men, and 
where I saw them.” 

“No. Remember it in your head, Heinrich. 
Suppose we wrote down things, and were made 
prisoners. They would search us, and if they 
found that we had been writing down information 


44 


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of their troops, they would be sure that we were 
spies. That would he too dangerous, and we could 
not help the fatherland if we were held in France 
as spies.’ ’ 

“I never thought of that, Karl, but you’re right. 
I will try to remember what I see without writing 
it .down at all.” 

4 4 Good! That is the best way. It is so that 
we can best hope to serve the fatherland now.” 

4 4 Karl, why couldn’t they have waited a little, 
if there is really to be a war? Until you and I 
were old enough to be in it, and to fight for 
Germany. ’ ’ 

“I don’t suppose they thought of that, 
Heinrich,” said Karl, with a laugh. 4 4 But don’t 
worry about not being able to help the father- 
land. When all the men are at the front, there 
will be plenty for boys to do. We must take the 
place of the fighters, if we can. And we scouts 
ought to be able to do many things. Besides, 
Heinrich, we may still be called on to fight. ’ ’ 

4 4 We are too young,” said Heinrich. 4 4 They 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


45 


would never let us boys go into the army, I know. ’ ’ 

“We are too young now,” said Karl. “But if 
the war lasts a long time perhaps we might have 
to go before it was over.” 

“A long time?” said Heinrich, astonished. 
“But it will be a short war, Karl. We shall win 
easily, and quickly.” 

“We don’t know that, Heinrich,” said Karl. 

4 ‘ I hope you are right. But this time it may not 
be like the last war. Then we fought France 
alone, and she was not ready. Now she has been 
waiting for forty years and more, and dreaming 
always of revenge. She will be readier, stronger, 
than she was then. And this time, too, it is not 
France alone that we must fight. Russia will be 
on her side. Perhaps England, too.” 

“And Austria and Italy will fight with us! Re- 
member the Triple Alliance.” 

“Austria will fight with us, yes. But we are 
not sure of Italy. The Italians hate the Austrians ; 
they are afraid of them, too. Perhaps Italy will 
not fight.” 


46 


ON BOARD 


“Well, it doesn’t matter! As for the Russians 
— bah! Didn’t the Japanese beat them almost as 
easily as we beat the French?” 

“No. They just barely managed to beat them, 
Heinrich. Perhaps if peace had not come when 
it did, Russia would have turned around and 
begun to win. Russia had to fight Japan thou- 
sands of miles away from home. She had to send 
her troops across Siberia, Heinrich.” 

“Yes, that did make a difference, I suppose.” 

“All the difference in the world. Now she has 
us and Austria on her own border. And I believe 
the Russians learned their lesson in the war with 
Japan. They will not be so easy to beat this 
time. ’ ’ 

“They will attack us on all sides!” said 
Heinrich, hotly. “That is the coward’s way. 
They know that alone none of them could beat 
Germany. Deutschland ueber alles! We will beat 
the whole world, if we must, Karl.” 

“I believe it,” said Karl, seriously. “God has 
always helped the fatherland. But it may take a 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


47 


long time. Perhaps we can beat France first, 
while Russia is still preparing to fight. But we 
cannot be sure. Perhaps we shall have to fight 
them both at once. And there are so many, many 
millions of Russians! As fast as one army is 
beaten, they can raise another. And they fight 
well, those Russians. They fought well against 
the Japanese, but they were badly led.” 

“We shall see,” said Heinrich. He was im- 
bued with the idea that Germany was invincible. 
“It is almost morning in earnest, Karl. What 
shall we do? Turn back or go on?” 

“First we must try to make sure of what has 
happened,” said Karl. “Then, if we can, I think 
we would have a better chance if we got over the 
French frontier and into Belgium. That is sup- 
posed to be a neutral country. But I think that 
there will be fighting there.” 

“Not at first, perhaps,” said Heinrich, hope- 
fully. 

“That is what I mean,” said Karl. “If we 
could get across Belgium and into Holland, we 


48 


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should be safe. They are friendly to Germans in 
Holland, I think. And, once we were there, I am 
sure we should find some way of getting home. If 
we could get to Antwerp it would be easy to reach 
Holland — it is almost on the frontier/ ’ 

“Can we stay here for breakfast ?” 

“No, I think we had better not.” Karl got out 
a road map, intended for the use of automobilists, 
which had been their guide. ‘ 4 This road has been 
used by the troops already. Perhaps it will be 
used again. Suppose we go across the fields to a 
road that is not so good? They might not be 
using that, and we should have a better chance.” 

“And we can get breakfast, I suppose, at some 
peasant’s house. Don’t you think we could, 
Karl?” 

“I suppose so,” said Karl, who could not help 
being amused by the persistence of his chum’s ap- 
petite. It seemed that nothing could make him 
insensible to the coming of meal time, not even 
the practical certainty that vrar had come. 


CHAPTER IV 


A DANGEROUS TRICK 

Although it was morning, it was still very early 
— too early for even the industrious French people 
whose hospitality had almost been thrust upon 
them the previous night to be up and out. Hein- 
rich, as they were putting all the things that they 
had used during the night in their packs, cast 
many a wistful look at the house. But Karl was 
obdurate. 

“We’re not going back there for breakfast, 
Heinrich,” he said, firmly. “I don’t care if you 
starve to death — which you won’t do, even if you 
miss your meals for a whole day! Look here — 
they know where we spent the night. Perhaps 
they have been warned by officers to keep their 
eyes open for any people who look like Germans. 
How do we know? They would be sure that we 
had seen those soldiers passing. And so we have 
got to get away.” 


49 


150 


ON BOARD 


For a moment Heinrich said nothing. But then 
he found a forgotten cake of chocolate in his 
pack, and gave a cry of joy. 

“That will keep us alive !” he cried, happily. 
“Here, Karl, take half!” 

“Save half. We don’t know how long it may 
he before we get a real breakfast,” laughed Karl. 
“It may have to be lunch, too. And I’m not 
hungry. ’ ’ 

Heinrich was munching his share of the choco- 
late already. They always carried chocolate, for 
they knew that no food so easily carried is so 
sustaining if meals are to be missed, and that 
every soldier’s emergency ration includes choco- 
late as a matter of course. 

“Karl,” said Heinrich, in a moment, “I have 
been thinking. It may be the war is not so near 
as we think; that it is only the French who are 
preparing. Suppose they see a chance to strike 
before we are ready. Couldn’t they get a great 
advantage? Couldn’t they mobilize secretly?” 

“I don’t believe so,” said Karl, dubiously. “To 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


51 


mobilize means to take men from every sort of 
occupation. No, we have too many Germans in 
France. Thei word would go back quickly.’ ’ 

“I’m ready,” said Heinrich, a few minutes 
later. “Which way?” 

“To those woods, beyond us there. We can 
get through, and there will be less chance of being 
seen. I wish we knew what was going on. But 
I am afraid to ask. They would know us for 
Germans, and we might be arrested at any 
moment. ’ ’ 

“That’s my fault,” said Heinrich. “I can 
scarcely speak French. Anyone would know that 
I was not French as soon as I opened my mouth. 
I could not pass even for an Alsatian!” 

“Heinrich! You have given me an idea, at least! 
We will go along. When we come to a good place, 
I will go out by myself and try to find out the 
truth and get food for our breakfast, too. If they 
detect my accent, I will speak of Alsace.” 

“And if you are arrested, what am I to do? 
Wait for you to return until I starve?” 


52 


ON BOARD 


“Of course not! Don’t act as if you were 
stupid, Heinrich! If I do not come back in an 
hour or two, go out boldly. Even if you are ar- 
rested, they won’t hurt you. They will feed you 
and look after you well.” 

“If I could speak French, I could go with you,” 
complained Heinrich. “After this I shall study 
more diligently. I see now that lessons are useful. 
I used to think they were just stupid.” 

“We’re not very near to school now,” said 
Karl, soberly. “If there is war, we don’t know 
how long it will be before we can go back. The 
teachers will have to go to fight.” 

In the woods they found everything quiet and 
peaceful. Here and there they came upon swine- 
herds with their flocks of pigs, who looked at 
them indifferently, with stupid eyes. But there 
was no sign, naturally enough, of anything war- 
like. It was nearly noon when they began to 
emerge from the forest. 

“There was a time when all this country was 
covered by a forest,” said Karl. “We are in the 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


53 


forest of Arden, Heinrich. Yon have read As You 
Like It — it was part of onr English course.” 

“Yes, yes — I remember,” said Heinrich. “But 
they had plenty to eat, Rosalind and the rest, 
even if they were in exile!” 

“Well, soon we shall have plenty, too,” said 
Karl, cheerfully. “Over there is a village. Do 
you see the smoke rising from the trees? I am 
going there to find out what there is to be known, 
and to get food. You wait here for me for an 
hour. If I am not back then, you had better fol- 
low me but if you should see me as a prisoner, do 
not admit that you know me. Pretend that you 
have never seen me before. Do you understand?” 

“No, but I will do as you say, Karl. You are 
captain here, not I. I do not have to understand. ’ ’ 
So Karl started off by himself. When he 
reached the road he looked at it carefully. Dry 
though it was, it was deeply rutted, and Karl 
thought he knew why. Guns had passed over it 
in the night — heavy guns drawn by motor tract- 
ors, or by great teams of heavy horses. No ordi- 


54 


ON BOARD 


nary, peaceful traffic would leave such scars be- 
hind it. 

When he came to a crossroad he stopped a mo- 
ment for ahead was a little group of five or six 
men trudging along in a manner quite different 
from that of the ordinary peasant. Each car- 
ried a bundle, slung at the end of a stick, which 
was over his shoulder. And there were three 
women with them, each by the side of a man, 
clinging to his arm. 

i i Reservists , 9 9 said Karl to himself. “Then 
mobilization must have been ordered. I must be 
careful . 9 1 

In the village work had stopped. The men who 
had entered the main road before him went 
straight to the mairie. And others followed them, 
carrying their bundles, too. Karl went in the 
same direction and outside the office of the mayor 
he saw a poster. A glance was enough to show 
him that it was the official order of mobilization. 
He had been right. It was war! And in a mo- 
ment a man tapped him on the shoulder. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


55 


“You are a stranger ! ’ ’ lie said. “ It is required 
that you report yourself at once to the police.’ ’ 

“ Willingly/ ’ said Karl. His accent betrayed 
him. The man gave a start, and stared at him. 

“You are a German !” he said, as if he were 
uttering a terrible accusation. 

“By law!” said Karl, his eyes flashing. He was 
acting a part, for the first time in his life, but he 
did well. “My name is Karl Schmidt, and I come 
from Strassburg. ’ ’ 

He managed to give the name of the capital of 
Alsace the French sound. “I have escaped, and I 
am trying to make my way to Paris. I have an 
uncle there.” 

“We shall see,” said the man. Plainly he was 
suspicious. Even KarPs youth did not altogether 
remove his suspicions. “Monsieur le Maire will 
see you. Then we shall know. Germans are not 
allowed about here.” 

Karl was perfectly willing to be taken to the 
office of the mayor of the commune. He had an- 
ticipated close questioning. And now he went 


56 


ON BOARD 


with his captor without the slightest trace of re- 
sistance. It was a time to match his wits, rather 
than his strength, against the enemies of the 
fatherland. In the office he had to wait while re- 
servists reported themselves, showed their book, 
in which appeared instructions as to the place of 
reporting, and the day of mobilization on which 
each man was required to report, and received 
permission to be off again. Then the official, a 
small, middle-aged man, turned to Karl. The man 
who had brought him in made his report. 

“Says he is an Alsatian — hein?” commented 
the mayor. “Well, then, perhaps he will have 
valuable information. Who knows? He must 
wait, in any case. There will be those here soon 
who will know how to talk with him. Ah, I hear 
the bugles now!” 

Karl heard them, too. He followed the mayor 
and Andre Froissard, as he learned his captor was 
called, to the window. Into the village a regiment 
of chasseurs was riding — the fine light cavalry of 
the French army. The people cheered them en- 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


57 


tliusiastically. Women strewed flowers before 
them, and flung garlands about the men and the 
horses, and from the sidewalks men and women 
alike cheered and cried: “a Berlin — a Berlin! 9 ’ 

Karl smiled. To Berlin, indeed! Well, they 
might reach Berlin, these Frenchmen. But it 
would be as prisoners, if they did. Had they 
learned no lessons about over-confidence forty 
years before ? It seemed not, and that meant that 
they must be taught again. But he was so(5n 
roused from such thoughts, for the colonel and 
several other officers dismounted; the bugles 
sounded “ Halt! 9 9 and the regiment came to rest. 
Plainly it was to stop here for the midday meal. 
And it was plain, too, that he was to be cross- 
examined by these officers. 

He nerved himself for what was almost sure to 
be an ordeal. He would have to lie, and Karl was 
unused to that. But he reminded himself that it 
was lawful, it was even praiseworthy, to deceive 
the enemy. He knew about what he meant to do; 
the details he could not decide upon in advance. 


58 


ON BOARD 


His answers must depend to some extent on the 
questions that would be asked. He meant, of 
course, to give no information of a sort that could 
by any chance be valuable to the French, al- 
though, as it happened, he might have done so. 
He had heard the course of a possible war with 
France discussed very often, and he had a much 
better notion of what the German plans for the 
first sharp blows would be than even many of- 
ficers of line regiments. 

“We have a prisoner, Monsieur le Colonel,” 
said the mayor, pompously, after he had ex- 
changed compliments with Colonel Picard. “He 
says he is from Strassburg.” 

“A prisoner? Hold, he is only a boy!” said the 
colonel, with a laugh. “Come here, my lad, and 
tell me about yourself. If you are from Strass- 
burg, how come you here ? ’ ’ 

“I did not want to be there if the Germans were 
going to put Alsace under martial law!” he said. 
“I wanted to be in France. I hoped that perhaps 
I could fight for France, that I would be allowed 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


59 


to help to make Alsace French again. So I tried 
to reach Paris, where my uncle could help me.” 

“Your uncle’s name and address?” said Col- 
onel Picard, instantly. 

For just a moment Karl was dismayed. He had 
not expected that question, and he had no answer. 
But on the spur of the moment he invented a 
name and address. 

“Take it down,” said the colonel, to one of his 
staff. “Send a telegram, requiring the police to 
verify what this boy says.” Then he turned to 
Karl again. “What did you see before you left 
Alsace?” he asked. “Were there many German 
soldiers?” 

“Thousands,” said Karl, earnestly. “We 
heard that they were coming from all directions, 
to concentrate at Strassburg. I saw many 
myself. ’ ’ 

“Did you see any regiments? Of what corps 
were they?” 

This was the sort of question Karl had ex- 
pected. And now he gave full rein to his imagina- 


60 


ON BOARD 


tion. He named regiments and told of having seen 
men belonging to them in Strassburg, when he 
knew very well that those particular regiments 
would concentrate at Cologne or Aix-la-Chapelle. 
And he saw that he was making an impression on 
Colonel Picard, who turned with smiling face to 
his staff. 

“You wish to serve France, Karl Schmidt! ” he 
asked, exchanging glances with the other officers. 

“Yes, my colonel.” 

“Perhaps we can use you, then. I will give 
orders that you are to be taken with us when we 
march from here. We may be in Alsace before 
long. For a day or two you can serve as a guide. 
Then I will see that you are sent back to Paris to 
your uncle. Now I will order a sergeant to assign 
you to a mess. That is enough. I will send for you 
when you are wanted again.” 

Now, indeed, Karl was dismayed, for the tele- 
gram to Paris would betray him; at the least he 
would be made a prisoner. And the false informa- 
tion he had given would not be believed. 


CHAPTER V 


A LUCKY CHANCE 

Karl’s wits were sharpened by the dangerous 
position in which he found himself. While Col- 
onel Picard gave his orders regarding him to a 
sergeant, he watched the lieutenant who had been 
ordered to telegraph concerning him attentively. 
This lieutenant had written down on a piece of 
paper the name and address that Karl had selected 
so wholly at random, and this he carried in his 
hand. Karl itched to get at that piece of paper. 
To do so might do him no good, yet plainly it was 
the first thing to be done. 

His problem was a double one. His first task, 
of course, was to escape from the care of these 
Frenchmen and to rejoin Heinrich. But he 
wanted passionately to effect his escape in such a 
manner that what he had said concerning the dis- 
position of German troops in Alsace might be be- 
lieved. It might be, of course, that French spies 
61 


ON BOARD 


62 

would report the truth, but he could take that 
chance, since he had to. If his own information, 
or misinformation, rather, were to be believed even 
for a few hours or a day or two, it might serve Ger- 
many well indeed. In the beginning of war ac- 
curate information as to the enemy’s plans is 
essential. 

Outside the door his first piece of good luck 
came to him. 

“Wait here,” said his escort, with a grin. 
“You won’t try to get away. And there is some- 
thing I want to do. I have a sweetheart here, you 
must understand. She will be waiting to see me. ’ ’ 

He winked, and Karl, delighted, agreed to wait. 
And then the lieutenant came out with another 
young officer. The paper that meant so much to 
Karl was in his hand, but he held it lightly, and a 
sudden gust of wind blew it from his hand. In- 
stantly Karl’s foot covered it; the movement was 
instinctive. If the lieutenant missed it now, he 
kad only to ask Karl for the name and ad- 
dress again. Karl scarcely breathed. But the of- 


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63 


ficer was busy with whatever he was saying to his 
comrade, and did not notice his loss. For a mo- 
ment he was safe. As soon as the officer was out 
of sight, Karl snatched up the paper and tore it 
to small pieces. 

Still the problem of his escape remained. He 
must get away, and in some manner that would 
not arouse suspicion, if that were possible, before 
the officer discovered the loss of that paper. And 
even while he stood racking his brain for some 
means of doing so, fate supplied the chance. 
There was a sudden sound of sharp explosions, 
and a despatch rider, mounted on a motorcycle, 
came speeding up to the mairie. The colonel ap- 
peared on the step; the messenger saluted him, 
and handed him a paper which Colonel Picard 
tore open. In a moment his whole appearance 
changed. He was galvanized into action. He 
cried out his orders; bugle calls broke out on the 
still air. And within five minutes the regiment 
was off, its noonday meal forgotten. 

Everyone in the village ran out to see the chas- 


64 


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seurs ride away. Karl was forgotten and lie 
seized the chance that luck had given him. Mak- 
ing off in the opposite direction, he soon came to 
a cottage well outside the village. There he 
bought bread and meat and two bottles of light 
wine, and began a circuit that would take him 
back to the spot where he had left Heinrich with- 
out making him go through the village. His time 
was up, but he was sure that Heinrich would wait 
a little longer, and he was right. His friend 
greeted him with a cry of joy, and when he saw 
the food that Karl had brought he cried out again 
in delight. 

“I saw soldiers passing again — cavalry,’ ’ he 
said, his mouth stuffed full of bread and meat. i ‘ 1 
was sure they had caught you. ’ ’ 

“They did,” said Karl. And he told of his ad- 
venture. “I found out what we were nearly sure 
of before,” he said. “It is war, Heinrich! And 
I am almost sure now that we cannot cross the 
frontier here. We must go on into France. We 
must let ourselves be caught and take’ our chance 


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65 


of being sent back to Germany. I think they will 
let ns go back.” 

Heinrich protested, but Karl was right, and they 
both knew it. There would be fighting before 
morning along the frontier, even though it was 
too early for real battles. All along the border 
the French soldiers would be guarding the line, 
just as German troops would be waiting on the 
other side. And, as always when KarPs mind was 
thoroughly made up, Heinrich gave way. Karl 
was the leader, and he was always able to make 
Heinrich see things as he did, if only he was 
patient enough in explaining his purpose and his 
meaning. 

“What shall we do, then?” asked Heinrich, 
when the argument was over. “Walk into that 
village where you were and surrender?” 

“No, not that,” said Karl, laughing. “That is 
the one place in all France where I do not want 
them to know the truth about me, just yet, at least. 
No! We will keep on walking, as if we knew noth- 
ing, until we are stopped. We will say that we 


66 


ON BOARD 


have been on a walking tour, and have heard noth- 
ing of the war. Many people were surprised. They 
were talking in the village of how English and 
American travelers have been caught everywhere, 
unable to move since all the railways were used 
for soldiers. So we will be believed I think. 
Come, finish your meal! We will take to the open 
road after we leave the woods. But first we shall 
go south. That will take us away from where 
we are already known .’ ’ 

They followed a devious course, winding in and 
out of the woods, traveling through fields, avoid- 
ing the road at first, because they wanted to be 
sure of escaping observation until there was little 
or no chance that they might fall into the hands 
of those who had heard of Karl ’s detention in the 
morning. They saw a few people, peasants in the 
main, but encountered no more soldiers. Aero- 
planes they saw often, but scarcely as many as 
they had seen the day before. 

Even when they took to the road at last, and 
were ready and willing to surrender on demand, 


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67 


they were unmolested and traveled as in peace. 

“The war has come so suddenly that everyone 
was taken by surprise,’ ’ said Karl. “If it had 
been expected for weeks before it broke out, we 
would never have come so far.” 

“Where are we, Karl? We have turned around 
so many times that I am quite lost. First the sun 
was behind us, then it was on one side, and then 
in front.” 

“I don’t wonder you’re lost,” said Karl. “I 
have tried to keep away from the railway lines, 
for there are certain to be soldiers on guard every 
little way.” 

“But if we are to surrender, why not to them 
as well as to anyone?” 

“I know — and yet I would like to learn more 
before we are caught, Heinrich. There is always 
the chance as long as we are free.” 

“But didn’t you expect to be caught before 
this?” 

“Yes. But I want to be caught, Heinrich, not 
to surrender myself. If we were French, and 


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traveling like this in Germany as war broke out, 
we would have been stopped long ago! So let us 
wait a little. I have a new plan. To-night I think 
we may still be free. If we are, let us hide near 
the railway from Rheims. Then perhaps I can 
get near enough to see what trains pass, and, if 
they stop, to learn what troops are in them. I 
think there is to be an invasion from Verdun. All 
the troops we saw were going that way. If they 
were only going to defend the fortress, they would 
not send so many soldiers. They are massing an 
army there.’ ’ 

4 ‘That is real scouting, Karl,” said Heinrich, 
enthusiastically. “If we could do that, we could 
really be serving Germany . 9 9 

The carelessness of the French, as it appeared to 
Karl and Heinrich, persisted. By nightfall they 
were quite close to the railway again, and still 
without being discovered. Already the work of 
war was evident. There were no men about and 
women were working in the fields. From one, who 
went into a little cottage, they begged a supper. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


69 


If she noticed their accent, she said nothing of it. 

“You are fortunate that you are only boys,” 
she said, bitterly. “They have taken my husband 
of a month. My brothers have gone. Perhaps I 
shall never see them again.” 

When they finished their supper it was quite 
dark. Not far away they could hear the passing 
of trains, and Karl got out his map. 

“Here is a good place,” he said, pointing. 
“There is a tunnel, see? If we could get near 
there, we might see soldiers looking out of the 
windows. If the light struck their uniform's we 
could tell the numbers of their regiments.” 

Karl wanted to go alone once more, but this 
time Heinrich was obstinate. 

“No,” he said, doggedly. “I am going, too. 
If there is danger, I will share it.” 

It was the first time since they had learned of 
the real danger of war that they had been near a 
railway, and now they soon found that the French 
were not so careless, after all. In the darkness 
little fires burned here and there, marking the 


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places where sentries were posted. And at a num- 
ber of spots searchlights were active, lighting up 
culverts and bridges. 

“Why do they do that?” asked Heinrich. “I 
should think that if anyone were trying to spy 
out how things lay, the lights would help instead 
of hinder them.” 

“They patrol the track between the fires, I 
think,” said Karl. “And as for the searchlights, 
they are kept on the places where damage might 
be done by a few men planting bombs. If a cul- 
vert were destroyed, it would block the whole 
line until it could be repaired, and that might 
delay thousands of soldiers going to the front.” 

Try as they would, they could not get as near 
to the railroad as Karl had hoped to do. They 
could see trains passing, to be sure. The sparks 
from the engines showed vividly in the darkness, 
and sometimes there was less than a hundred 
yards between one train and the next. But the 
carriages were darkened, and it was impossible 
to discover how many men were in the trains — one 


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71 


of the things that Karl had been anxious to learn. 
All that was certain was that many, many thou- 
sands of men were passing. 

They could hear the occasional calls of the 
sentries, but it was disappointing work, since 
Karl had hoped to learn much more. At last, 
however, he saw a chance. They came to a brook 
in which the water was not deep, while it ran 
swiftly. The brook ran through a gully with 
steep sides. 

“Here’s our chance!” said Karl. “If we don’t 
mind getting our feet wet, we can creep along 
here and get fairly close, I think. And there’s 
a searchlight at work below. If we can keep on in 
the darkness, we can get to a spot where the light 
will be on the windows of the trains as they pass.” 

They crept along silently, and it turned out that 
Karl was right. It was hard to keep their footing 
in the rushing water, but they managed it. And 
so they were almost under the tracks at last. They 
could hear the sentries’ voices distinctly. They 
were near a spot where the beat of one began and 


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that of his neighbor ended. And they could see 
the trains. Seemingly Karl’s plan was to be suc- 
cessful. And then, just as the two sentries met 
within a few feet of them, Karl sneezed! 

Instantly a shot rang out. Panic seized both 
the boys. They ran, when their one chance might 
have been to keep perfectly still and trust that no 
one had discovered the exact spot whence the 
sound of that treacherous sneeze had come. But 
they could not think of that in their excitement. 
It was instinct to run, and run they did. 

Behind them came the two sentries. The boys 
could hear them calling to one another. They 
guessed, too, that others had joined the chase. 
Heinrich, as well as Karl, knew that it was likely 
to go hard with them if they were caught now. 
They had been spying on the railroad, for they 
could have had no other purpose in being there. 
And in time of war the fate of spies is an unpleas- 
ant one. Their youth would not save them; only 
their crime would be considered. 

As soon as possible Karl gripped Heinrich’s 


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73 


hand and half led, half dragged him up the bank 
and so from the brook to the field. Not very far 
away was a clump of woods. If they could reach 
that, they might have a bare chance to escape. 
But it was far away, and the French soldiers were 
gaining. And then suddenly, without a prelimin- 
ary warning of any sort, a blinding glare swept 
them. The field became as light as day. Amazed, 
they looked up, as the light passed over them. 
Above them was a huge, a monstrous shape. 

“An airship! And a German airship!” cried 
Karl. They stopped, and turned toward their pur- 
suers. They could see them now in the full glare 
of the searchlight from above. Both dropped to 
their knees and began firing, but they fired only 
once. For then a volley rang out from the monster 
above, and the searchlight winked out and then 
flashed down on them again. From above a voice 
hailed them, in German. And Karl answered, in 
German also. 

“Help us, if you can!” he cried. “We are 


Germans ! * ’ 


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ON BOARD 


Down swooped the airship. A rope ladder 
came flying down toward them. 

“Up with you, Heinrich !” cried Karl. 

A minute later, while the Zeppelin soared 
higher and higher, Karl was telling their story 
to a German officer, in the basket-like car of one 
of the newest and swiftest of the aerial battle- 
ships which Germany alone had learned to make 
and to use. As he told his story the officer 
nodded repeatedly. 

“You have done very well,” he said. “Rest 
now. Later you shall tell me more. Now we 
have far to go, and I shall be busy.” 


CHAPTER YI 


HELGOLAND 

They were willing enough to be still for a time. 
Never had either even imagined anything half so 
wonderful as the experience they were now en- 
joying. The great airship, as long as many ships 
that they had seen at sea, had risen swiftly, and 
was now nearly half a mile above the ground. 
Below them they could still see the line of the rail- 
way, marked by its little twinkling spots of light 
from the camp fires. Trains were still passing, 
but now they could see them for many miles in 
each direction, with the fires of the engines to 
mark them. 

The Zeppelin was flying with the wind, and 

there was no sense of motion. Unless they looked 

down they might have believed that the airship 

was hovering motionless in the air, so smooth 

was her motion. But when they did look down, 

they could see the land flying below them, and 
75 


76 


ON BOAKD 


they realized the immense speed of the air craft. 

There was nothing terrifying, scarcely anything 
exciting about their sensations. There was plenty 
of room. They were at the stern, and above them 
was the great gas bag. In front was another car, 
in which there were more engines, and the space 
between the two cars was bridged, so that men 
could pass from one to the other in case of need. 
The powerful engines did their work quietly. 

Little attention seemed to be required to keep 
the airship on her course. But there was work to 
be done, in spite of that. Men with night glasses 
were constantly peering down. They called out 
an observation now and then, and notes were 
made by an officer who had been detailed for the 
purpose. But at last this stopped and the officer 
who had received them turned to Karl with a 
smile. 

“We are home again,” he said. “That is Ger- 
man soil you see below you.” 

“And where do you land!” asked Karl. 

“That I cannot say — now,” said the officer, 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


77 


gravely. “ You understand? I believe you. I am 
sure that you are good German boys, and that all 
is well. But I have my orders. You will be safe 
with us, but I can tell you nothing more now. It 
is time for you to sleep. Take plenty of blankets 
and lie down. There are wraps enough, and it 
will be colder even than it is now before we land. ’ 9 

“We hoped that perhaps you would land not 
far from Dusseldorf or in some place where we 
could get a train for there,’ ’ said Karl. “But it 
does not matter.” 

The officer exchanged smiles with one of the 
other officers. Karl guessed then that it was the 
mention of Dusseldorf that caused the smile, and 
that the Zeppelin’s actual destination was prob- 
ably far away. He wondered where it might be. 
There were hangars for Zeppelins, he knew, at 
Dusseldorf, at Metz, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, of 
course, at Friedrich shafen on Lake Constance, 
where many Zeppelins were built. But he was 
determined not to ask questions and he nudged 
Heinrich, who seemed disposed to be more in- 


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quisitive, as a sign to refrain from inquiry. 

“Zu befehl, Herr Hauptmann,’’ he said. “We 
shall sleep then, and gladly. It has been a long 
day.” 

To his surprise, Karl found it an easy matter to 
sleep in spite of the strangeness of his surround- 
ings. He was awakened, in fact, by the laughing 
voice of the officer when it was broad daylight. 
At once he looked over the Zeppelin’s side. And 
below he saw the sea and a little island, near 
which were ugly looking warships — destroyers 
and a pair of light cruisers, with black smoke 
pouring from their funnels. 

For a moment Karl was caught by the wonder 
of the scene. Out of a cloudless sky a blazing 
sun was shining down upon them. Fifteen hun- 
dred feet below and more, they could see the rip- 
pling waves. They were out of sight of land, save 
for the tiny island spread out below them. 

“Where are we?” gasped Karl. 

“Can’t you guess?” asked Captain Hartmann, 
as Karl now knew he was called. 


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79 


“ Helgoland ?” ventured Karl. “Then we have 
come so far ? But are those all the ships that are 
here now?” 

“All that are here now, yes,” said Hartmann, 
grinning. “Look over there — well out to sea. 
Do you see anything?” 

Karl looked in the direction in which the cap- 
tain was pointing. And in a moment he saw 
what he had noticed before, but had taken for a 
bank of clouds. 

“It is smoke,” he said. He glanced at Hart- 
mann’s glass. “May I look through that?” he 
asked. 

Hartmann handed him the glass. It was a 
powerful one, and through it, beneath the smoke, 
he could see what caused it. There lay a long, 
low, rakish looking ship, with four smokestacks. 

“English?” he asked, unaccountably thrilled. 
‘ ‘ Then we are at war with England, too ? ’ 9 

“Yes, with England, too,” said Hartmann. 
“What matter? It was bound to come. We fight 
France, England, Russia, Belgium. Servia and 


80 


ON BOARD 


Montenegro fight our allies, the Austrians. Per- 
haps Greece and Roumania will join them, and 
Japan. Let the whole world attack us! The 
fatherland will triumph! Yes, that is an English 
cruiser that you see. There are others near her. 
Cruisers and destroyers. And beyond them lie the 
dreadnaughts, the great battleships. They are 
two and three to our one. Our aeroplanes have 
flown over them. They blockade the whole 
coast.’ ’ 

“Will there be a battle?” asked Karl. 

“Not yet,” said Hartmann, soberly. “Our 
sailors are brave — yes, and they are good sailors, 
too, even if only a few years ago we had no navy 
worthy of the name. They are anxious to fight. 
For years now our officers have stood up to drink 
a toast — ‘Zum Tag’! You know what that 
meant ? ’ ’ 

“ ‘To the day!’ Yes. The day when we should 
meet England on the sea. Hasn’t the day come?” 

“No, not yet. For it would be suicide to fight 
in the open sea when they were three to one. But 


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81 


the day will come. We have lessons to teach them 
first. When we fight, the odds will be much less, ’ ? 
said the captain. 

“But if they are so strong, can they not come 
in? Why do they stay so far out, so that we can 
hardly see them? Why do they not come in and 
attack our sliips here?” 

“Because there is death in every wave if they 
come in! Our mines are planted there — so many 
mines and so well laid that no ship could come in 
and live unless it knew where every mine was 
planted. And, moreover, even if there were no 
mines, there are forts. Ha! That was a fine joke 
we played on England when she gave us Helgo- 
land! It was hers once. She would give its 
weight in gold for it to-day, the little isle of rock 
and sand that we have made a mighty fortress. 
Its guns command the seas about it. No battle- 
ship even can come within a mile of those guns 
without being blown out of the water. Here we 
guard the mouth of the Elbe and of the Weser.” 

“I see,” said Karl. He drew a long breath. 


S2 


ON BOARD 


* ‘So it has all been planned! It has been ar- 
ranged, long ago, just what should happen when 
the time came.” 

‘ 4 Yes/ ’ said Hartmann. “Germany is not like 
other nations. She is prepared, always. For ex- 
ample, as to you and your friend. I have believed 
you. I have taken you into my confidence. I 
think you are true sons of the fatherland, and 
that you were in danger when I took you up with 
me. But if I am wrong, no harm will be done. If 
you have not told the truth, I shall soon know it. 
And then you will be shot, perhaps, or im- 
prisoned.” 

He spoke calmly, in the same cool, matter-of- 
fact tone that seemed so wholly natural to him. 
The French colonel to whom Karl had deliberately 
given misinformation had not talked so. He 
wondered if he would have dared to try to trick 
Hartmann or any one of a hundred other German 
officers he had seen in the same way. Of one thing 
he was sure. He would not have succeeded, even 
for a moment. Nothing would have been left to 


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83 


chance. Every detail of his story would have 
been checked up and verified without the slightest 
delay. 

‘ 4 Wake up your friend,” said Hartmann, finally. 
“We descend now. This is a naval Zeppelin, 
and down below there, on the island, is our base. 
When we land I will confirm what you have told 
me of your names and your homes. Then when 
everything is regular, I will try to arrange for you 
to reach Dusseldorf. But I do not know how soon 
that will be possible .’ 9 

“It does not matter,” said Karl, quietly. “We 
would serve the fatherland in Dusseldorf, were we 
home. Perhaps there will be work for us here, 
some way in which even boys may be useful. We 
are scouts, Heinrich and I — Pfadfinder.” 

“So? That is well. That is a good movement. 
Even an Englishman may think of a good thing, 
it seems. And Baden-Powell is a good soldier, 
though what he did against the Boers was no 
more than any one of thousands of our officers 
could have done. They are good fighters, those 


84 


ON BOARD 


English, but poor soldiers. In the beginning of a 
war they are no good. But if the war lasts long 
enough they grow stronger, instead of weaker. 
They fought well with us at Waterloo.” 

Then while Hartmann superintended the 
descent of the great airship, which had hung in 
a great circle to get into the proper position, 
Karl awakened Heinrich, who had slept soundly 
while Karl had his view of the fleets, or rather the 
small squadrons, that had been in sight. Hein- 
rich’s capacity for sleep was as great as his ap- 
petite. He was vastly astonished now to discover 
where they were, and to look down and see the 
warships, so quiet, and yet so grim and formid- 
able. But he had other sensations. 

“Don’t they eat breakfast on a Zeppelin?” he 
complained. “I am hungry, Karl! Did you eat 
yours and let me sleep? If you did I shall never 
forgive you!” 

Karl roared at him. 

“You see for the first time the most wonderful 
sight in the world,” he exclaimed, “and yet you 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


85 


can think only of breakfast! A tine soldier you 
would make, Heinrich ! If you were in battle you 
would want the fighting stopped while you ate 
your dinner .’ 9 

“No,” said Heinrich, seriously. “I shouldn’t 
want that at all. If there is anything to do, I 
can always wait for my meals. But when it does 
no good for me to wait, I get hungry, and I like 
to eat regularly three times a day.” 

“And once or twice over, for good measure!” 
scoffed Karl. “Well, we shall have breakfast 
when we land, I expect. And that will be very 
soon.” 

It was fascinating to watch the work of bring- 
ing the great airship to its mooring. Graceful 
and easy to handle as the Zeppelins are when they 
are once well launched into their own element, 
they become cranky and difficult, even dangerous, 
when they are required to land. But Hartmann 
managed the planes that raise or lower the great 
gas bags with consummate skill, and the engines 
seemed to respond as surely as the motor of a 


ON BOARD 


86 

modern automobile. The engines, of course, are 
practically the same in a Zeppelin as in a motor 
car, except that they are infinitely more powerful. 

And so at last, with scarcely a jar, the great 
ship came to rest upon the earth. Men had been 
ready below to seize the mooring ropes, and these 
were tied to great staples. The lessons of the 
early Zeppelins and their disasters had been well 
learned. In the days of experimenting more than 
one ship had been torn away from her moorings 
by a sudden squall. But now it would take 
a cyclone to send one of the Zeppelins adrift. 
Before them, as they looked up from the ground 
to which they descended, loomed a great shed or 
hangar, as the sheds of airships are called, but 
into this the ship was not to go at once. Karl 
felt that this meant that she might set out soon 
again, but he asked no questions. 

They had their breakfast, an excellent one, too, 
for war time, and on an island where rations were 
reduced, not for lack of opportunity to revictual, 
but because the island was so small that literally 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


87 


every inch, of room was needed. And then they 
waited until Hartmann, smiling, came to them. 

“I knew it!” he said. 6 ‘Your story is verified 
in every detail.” 



CHAPTER VII 


ACTIVE SERVICE 

The island of Helgoland, in time of war, was a 
curions place. Karl and Heinrich, as they soon 
discovered, appeared to be the only civilians on 
the island. It was purely a military spot. Its 
fortifications were powerful in the extreme. A 
huge wireless plant dominated one side of the 
island, the great masts and aerials of the Tele- 
f unken system rising high into the air. Every 
man they saw seemed to be busy. There was no 
confusion; each knew exactly what he was to do, 
and went about his work quietly and methodic- 
ally. It was an extraordinary example of 
efficiency. 

‘ ‘ One would never think Germany was at war, ’ ’ 
said Heinrich. 

“It is because we have been ready,” said Karl, 

proudly. “We did not want war, but we knew 

that it might come at any moment. That is why 
89 


90 


ON BOARD 


everything is so orderly here. We are mot like 
the French. In France there was confusion and 
excitement. We didn’t see how it was at home, of 
course, but I believe it was all much more like 
this. ’ ’ 

“I wonder how long we shall stay here, Karl? 
Will they send us home, do you think?” 

“I don’t know. I wish there was something 
for us to do. We might be useful here, I should 
think. Let us go over to the wireless station. 
Wait — I will ask Captain Hartmann first if we 
may go.” 

“Why not?” said Hartmann, cheerfully, when 
they made their request. “We found out things 
about you two that you did not tell us. Your 
families are serving the fatherland, as your an- 
cestors have done. But why are you interested 
in wireless?” 

“We know a little of it already,” said Karl. 
“We know the code and have used telegraph in- 
struments. But we have never seen a really great 
wireless plant working before.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


91 


“So?” Hartmann seemed to be unduly in- 
terested. “ What do you know of wireless ? Have 
you ever operated the instruments?” 

“Yes, Herr Hauptmann. We built stations on 
the roofs of our houses near Dusseldorf. We live 
about two miles apart, Heinrich and I, and we 
rigged up our plant about a year ago. It has 
always worked well, though it is a low-powered 
one, and we have a radius of only a few miles. ’ ’ 

“Yet the principle is the same,” mused Hart- 
mann. “You wish to serve, do you not? If you 
understand wireless it may be that we can find 
w T ork for you to do. I do not see how you are to 
be sent at once to Dusseldorf, in any case. If you 
must stay, you may as well make yourselves 
useful.” 

“There is nothing we should like better, Herr 
Hauptmann,” said Heinrich, enthusiastically. 

“Wait, then, until I speak to the commandant. 
I will see what he says. Perhaps I can arrange 
for you to have some lessons in the Telefunken 
station here. ’ 9 


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ON BOARD 


They waited impatiently for his return. 

‘ 4 Come with me,” he said. “Captain von 
Schoenberg of the Imperial Navy wishes to ques- 
tion you.” 

Hartmann, it seemed, had already made a re- 
port of what Karl had noted down while they 
were still in France, immediately after the out- 
break of war. Now Captain von Schoenberg ex- 
amined them in more detail. 

“Gut — sehr gut! Very good!” he said. “You 
kept your eyes open. I shall have the informa- 
tion you have brought sent by wireless to head- 
quarters. Meanwhile Captain Hartmann tells me 
that you are anxious to be of further service, and 
that you already know something of wireless. 
Report to Sergeant Schmidt, now in charge of the 
Telefunken station. He will test your knowledge 
and, as far as time permits, give you instruction.” 

They were delighted. And within five minutes 
they were in the little house where the delicate re- 
cording and transmitting instruments of the wire- 
less outfit were located. This house was carefully 


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93 


protected from stray shots in case of a bombard- 
ment. But, as Schmidt pointed out to them, that 
would be of little avail in case of a real attack. 

“They’d shoot away the aerials,” he said. 
“But then, when they had gone, those could be 
easily replaced, while the instruments here could 
not.” 

Schmidt himself was busy at this moment. 
Three operators were always on duty, day and 
night. One sat constantly with the telephone-like 
receiving instrument over his ears. In this the 
murmurs of the aerials were translated. The faint 
sound that came over the wires was magnified, and 
the operator charged with this duty thus picked 
up the messages. The operators worked in re- 
lays, naturally, and now one who was off duty for 
three hours was delegated by Schmidt to explain 
the workings of the plant to the two boys. He took 
them to the dynamo whence came the power to 
operate the plant, and showed them the batteries 
which, in emergency, would supply current for 
several hours. 


94 


ON BOARD 


“It’s the same as our plant, only ever so much 
bigger,” said Heinrich. “I think it is easy to 
understand.” 

Schmidt, they soon learned, had his orders re- 
garding them. In a little while he called to them. 

“Send this message, if you can,” he said, to 
Karl. “Take my place here at the key.” 

For a moment Karl studied the code words, 
which had no meaning for him. Then he adjusted 
another receiving instrument over his ears, and, 
throwing open his switch, began tapping his key. 

“K-L, K-L, K-L.” As he tapped the key the 
great spark crashed out overhead, and he knew 
that the mysterious waves of sound were being 
sent through the air in all directions. He knew, 
too, that only the stations specially tuned up to 
receive waves of the particular length that were 
being sent out would receive the call, and that 
only the station at Kiel would answer. Soon the 
answer came. He glanced over at the other listen- 
ing operator. 

“All right! That is their private signal,” this 


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95 


man nodded, as an explanation to the boys. 

And then, with a sure, quick touch, Karl began 
tapping out the code words on the paper that 
Schmidt had handed him. Schmidt and the 
others watched, approval expressed in their smiles. 
Karl made no mistakes, and he sent the message 
quickly and confidently. When it was done he 
waited for the message to be repeated, checking 
it off by his written paper. 

“Sehr gut!” said Schmidt, then. “You send 
like a veteran, youngster! I shall report that 
there is nothing we can teach you. You are fit 
to take your place here as an operator to-day.” 

“As for the other? We have not tried him,” 
said one of the other operators. 

“Let me try, too,” said Heinrich. 

“Yes, it is your turn, now,” said Schmidt, 
smiling at his eagerness. “Here is a message for 
you to send.” 

Heinrich met the test as well as Karl had done. 
Indeed, he was, if anything, even quicker and 
more perfect than Karl. Heinrich had unusual 


96 


ON BOARD 


mechanical ability. His hands were able to turn 
to many sorts of work by sheer instinct as it 
seemed, though in everything that involved brain 
work and clear thinking Karl took the lead when 
they were doing something together. 

Hartmann came in after a time, to see how they 
had fared. He was delighted by Schmidt’s 
report. 

“I shall win a medal yet for having picked you 
np back there in France!” he said, happily. 
‘ ‘Come, then. I am going away soon. I shall 
leave you with a brother officer who will care for 
you properly. ’ 9 

“You are going in the airship?” asked Hein- 
rich. ‘ ‘ Can ’t we go with you, Herr Hauptmann ? ’ 9 

“Not on this journey, my boy,” said Hartmann, 
with a smile. “It is too dangerous. And every 
man of my crew has his work to do. Unless there 
was great need of you it would he impossible. In 
such a trip every extra pound of weight is 
counted. Nothing can be taken, neither man nor 
supplies that is not absolutely needed. When- 


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97 


ever we get rid of a little excess weight we add 
more petrol to the tanks. ’ ’ 

“You are going on a long journey ?” said Hein- 
rich. “ Where V 9 

“That I cannot tell you,” said Hartmann, with 
a smile. “It is a secret. But if we come hack 
you shall know — you and all Germany. All the 
world shall know then!” 

“Ask no questions like that again, Heinrich,” 
said Karl, in a low voice. “We are here only on 
sufferance. We are civilians, remember, and in 
times of war it is the business of civilians not to 
ask questions or to get in the way in any fashion.” 

“ I ’ll remember,” said Heinrich, flushing a lit- 
tle. “I asked without thinking.” 

The sun was still shining brightly. But now, 
as they looked out to sea, they saw a haze. Hart- 
mann sniffed the air; he lifted a moistened finger 
to test the wind, and then looked at the flags that 
hung from the fortifications. 

“Fog coming!” he said. “That is good! That 
will be helpful. We have to fight might with guile 


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ON BOARD 


in these first days. The fog will help ns greatly.’ ’ 

He left them in a few minutes, after having in- 
troduced them to Lieutenant Mannheim, who was 
to take charge of them while they remained on 
the island. Mannheim, too, had noticed the com- 
ing fog. 

‘ ‘ Good fortune, Franz!” he said to Hartmann. 
“You will ride away in the fog.” 

“We shall soon rise above it,” said Hartmann. 
“The sun will shine upon us, but below the fog 
there will be those who would give much to see 
through it. Ah! They may guess that we are 
above, but while the fog lasts they cannot know! 
Even the weather fights for the fatherland, my 
friend, this day ! ’ 9 

Then, still without noise, without confusion of 
any sort, the Zeppelin was prepared for de- 
parture. Her crew went to their stations ; the com- 
mandant held a last brief interview with Hart- 
mann, who saluted finally, and took his place in 
the car. Then the propellers began to turn; the 
whirring of the powerful Diesel engines sounded 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


99 


on the quiet air, and in a minute the great cigar- 
shaped airship rose slowly, majestically, from the 
ground and climbed into the air. There was no 
cheering. This was war; it was grim business, 
deadly work, that the Zeppelin had to do. Once 
well in the air, she circled once or twice. Then her 
course was taken, and she flew off to the northwest. 
Soon her silver sides, shining in the sun, were 
merged in the sky, as she rose higher and higher. 
And it was not long before she had utterly dis- 
appeared. 

“God send that they come back safe and suc- 
cessful !” said Lieutenant Mannheim, soberly. 
And the two boys echoed his wish. That great 
cruiser of the air had saved them the night before 
when they had seemed certain to be captured. 
Had it not appeared in that wonderful and timely 
fashion, they would now be prisoners in France. 
Perhaps their imprisonment might already have 
ended. They would have been classed as spies, 
despite their youth. And in war there is short 
shrift for spies. 


100 


ON BOARD 


1 ‘The fog is coming in swiftly/ ’ said Heinrich. 
“Look, Karl!” 

It was true. It was more than a mist now. It 
was a regular North Sea fog, thick and opaque. 
And now Captain von Schoenberg came up to 
them. 

“I have sent for the Koenigin Luise,” he said. 
“It means haste, but it is too good a chance to 
lose. Even if she has not her full equipment, it 
is the time of all times for her to set to work. 
She should go far in such weather! But I wonder 
if she will be ready. The accident of last week 
may have made a difference.” 

Karl and Heinrich listened. They did not 
understand. 


CHAPTER VIH 


VOLUNTEERS ACCEPTED 

Late that afternoon, when wraithlike streamers 
of mist were all about the island, and the sea 
had nearly been blotted out by the fog that was 
still creeping in on them, Karl and Heinrich were 
on the dock, watching the school of submarines 
that lay waiting for the word to go out. 

“Here comes a vessel/ ’ said Heinrich. “Look, 
Karl! Is she not like a yacht V 9 

“It is the Koeni gin Luise” said Karl, after a 
moment. He studied the long, dark gray ship 
closely. She did not look much like the luxurious 
cruising yacht in which, two summers before, he 
had gone with his family for a cruise in the Nor- 
wegian fjords. She had still her yacht-like bow. 
But her rails were gone; all the hamper of the 
pleasure ship had been stripped away, and she 
looked stem and warlike, typifying, indeed, the 

sudden change that war had brought to all 
101 


102 


ON BOARD 


Germany, and to many other European countries. 

“Of what use is she? She is not meant for 
fighting, is she?” asked Heinrich. 

“No. But she is of some use, or she would not 
be here. Well, if it is intended that we shall know, 
we shall find out in due time, I suppose. She is 
very swift. There are many things, I think, that 
she might do. She might he sent out on a scout- 
ing expedition in the fog.” 

In the harbor of Helgoland there is deep water 
to the very edge of the docks. So now the con- 
verted liner came up and was moored within a 
stone’s throw of where the two boys stood. They 
could see her decks, swarming with men. On 
each side of the superstructure small guns were 
mounted — quick firing six and nine pounders, as 
they both recognized. And in her bow was a 
heavier gun, a 4.7 rifle, capable of destroying a 
torpedo-boat destroyer with a single shot. 

No sooner had the vessel been tied up than her 
crew and a_number of men on the dock burst into 
life. From a warehouse great bell-shaped things 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


103 


were brought, and these were hoisted aboard the 
ship by a steam crane. Karl gave a cry of under- 
standing. 

“Mines!” he said. “We are stupid, Hein- 
rich! Of course, it is to lay mines that she will go 
out in the fog. Each of those mines is powerful 
enough to destroy a battleship. It is so that we 
must fight that great English fleet, in the begin- 
ning at least. While our big ships stay in harbor, 
at Cuxhaven, at Kiel, at Wilhelmshaven, their 
fleet must keep the sea. And it will be a sea full 
of hidden perils. Some ships will strike mines. 
Others our submarines will find and sink. And so, 
if God is with us, we shall even matters in the 
end. We shall be able to fight them on even terms 
and beat them. Ship for ship and man for man, 
I believe our fleet is better than theirs. But all 
that we have spent on our army they have been 
able to devote. to their navy.” 

“It does not seem fair — to strike from behind, 
to give them no chance to fight back,” said 
Heinrich. “I wish that our fleet might sail out 


104 


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and beat them in. a battle in the open sea.” 

“It is as fair to strike them as we must do as 
/ 

for them to send three ships against our one!” 
said Karl, hotly. “They have always been afraid 
to run the risk of meeting us openly. They fight 
and plan in one way, and we in another. Time 
will tell which has been right. But do not say it is 
not fair. War is not a game, Heinrich. Each 
nation fights to win, by any means. ’ ’ 

Heinrich seemed to be silenced, if he was not 
convinced. For a time they watched with fascina- 
tion the work of equipping the Koenigin Luise with 
the engines of destruction she was to sow broad- 
cast. Here again everything seemed to have been 
planned long in advance. Every man knew what 
he had to do, and did it without fuss or delay. 
Dull and prosaic as this particular work seemed, it 
was fascinating just because it had been so well 
planned. But they were interrupted in their gaz- 
ing at the busy scene by the sudden appearance of 
an orderly. 

“Captain von Schoenberg desires to see you at 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


105 


once in his office,’ ’ said the man, saluting them as 
if they had been officers, to Heinrich’s ill con- 
cealed delight. 

“We will come at once,” said Karl, and they 
followed him. It was beginning to grow dark 
now; the fog, now very dense, had shortened the 
twilight. 

They found Captain von Schoenberg with a 
young man in the uniform of a naval commander. 

“Here are the boys I spoke of, Commander 
Schraf t, ’ ’ said the captain. * ‘ They are anxious to 
serve the fatherland. You will find them fully 
able to use the wireless and willing to obey. If 
they are young, that makes them no less anxious 
to do their part. I dare not spare any of my men 
here. ’ ’ 

“They will suit me excellently,” said Schraf t, 
after a quick glance at them. “It is regrettable 
that they must be asked to share our danger, 
but—” 

“I will explain,” said the captain, turning to 
the puzzled boys. “A few days ago there was an 


106 


ON BOARD 


accident on the Koenigin Luise. Her wireless 
operators were injured. She is about to sail from 
here on a mine laying expedition that will carry 
her to the British coast. It is of the greatest im- 
portance that a report be made instantly, by wire- 
less, of the exact position of every mine that is 
laid. If this were not done, our own ships might 
strike them by accident. Are you willing to un- 
dertake this service ? ’ ’ 

“ Gladly !” cried both boys, in one breath. 

Both the naval officers smiled at their enthusi- 
asm. But Captain von Schoenberg was grave. 

“The risk is consider able,’ ’ he said. “The 
British ships are everywhere. Our aerial scouts 
have brought us some knowledge of them, but 
there is always the danger of an encounter. Were 
the situation not very grave, I should not allow 
you to go. You have a duty to your parents. 
Knowing all the danger, are you still willing 
to go ? ’ ’ 

“Our first duty is to the fatherland,’ ’ said Karl. 
“Our fathers are serving with their regiments. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


107 


Were they here to advise us, they would tell us to 
go.” 

44 There speaks the German spirit!” cried 
Schraft. 44 I will try to guard them, Captain. It 
is as you say. The need is very great. We must 
take advantage of this fog. If we could wait — 
but we cannot. And it is vital that the reports be 
sent by wireless. If we are sunk or captured, our 
mine chart goes with us — save that the enemy will 
never find it.” 

4 4 Very well , 9 9 said von Schoenberg. 4 4 1 give my 
consent. May God be with you and bring success 
to your work!” 

From the stores the boys were supplied with 
heavy woolen underwear and with thick clothes. 

4 4 On board we wear such clothes always, day 
and night,” said Schraft. 4 4 In these waters the 
sea is very cold. It is necessary, in case of acci- 
dent, to be warmly clad, for otherwise a man 
would die before even quick help could reach him. 
And in our work there is always the danger of 
disaster. We may meet and be sunk by a stronger 


108 


ON BOARD 


ship; a torpedo may strike us; we may hit one of 
the British mines.” 

Neither Karl nor Heinrich was frightened. 
They were too delighted with the chance to serve 
their country, as everyone they had seen since the 
memorable moment in which Captain Hartmann 
had saved them in France was serving it. They 
had never dared to hope for such good fortune. 
They were not to tight, but they understood that 
they were to be as useful, at the very least, as any 
fighting man could be. 

Suddenly, as they walked together toward the 
ship, Heinrich laughed aloud. 

“What’s the joke, Heinrich?” asked Karl. 

“I am just thinking that had it not been for an 
Englishman we should not have this chance to 
work against England!” said Karl. “It is 
because we were Boy Scouts that we learned 
telegraphy. We both did it to win an honor 
badge, Karl, you remember.” 

“That’s so! It is strange, isn’t it? And it was 
an Englishman, as you say, who started the Boy 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


109 


Scouts. I wonder if the scouts in France and 
England are working for their countries, too?” 

“I suppose so, Karl. And at home, in Dussel- 
dorf? What of Oscar von Siegel and the rest?” 

“We can only guess, Heinrich. But I know that 
they will do what they can, at least, whether it is 
much or little. Perhaps they can help to care for 
the wounded, and do many things that are neces- 
sary and that would take a man away from the 
front if a scout did not do them.” 

“So even boys can help, Karl! I never was so 
proud of being a German before! I believe the 
whole nation has rallied at the call to arms. Men, 
women, children — we are all behind our Kaiser! 
What if we have to fight the whole world? We 
can do it, for there is no country so united.” 

“Prussia fought half of Europe — more than 
half of Europe — once before. Frederick the 
Great beat France and Russia and Austria, and 
he had only Prussia, not all of what is now Ger- 
many. Saxony was against him, and Bavaria. 
And now, with all Germany united, and Austria on 


110 


ON BOARD 


our side, why shouldn’t we win?” he concluded. 

When they reached the Koenigin Luise they 
found that in a few moments everything would be 
ready for departure into the fog. All the mines 
were on board; a few stores only remained to be 
brought. They were taken at once to the wireless 
cabin. 

“You will take the work in turns,” said Schraft, 
changed, somehow, from the genial enthusiast 
they had first seen. His face was stem and set 
now. He was on duty. “While one works, the 
other will sleep. You will remain in this room. 
There is a sofa on which the one who is off duty 
can sleep. Your meals will be brought to you 
here. Always you must be ready. Without per- 
mission you will not leave the cabin. Men will be 
waiting always to carry messages.” 

He was about to leave the cabin. Then he 
turned. 

“Any message that you receive or intercept is 
to be brought to me immediately, at any hour,” 
he ordered. “If, by chance, I am asleep, I am to 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


111 


be awakened.’ ’ His face lightened, and there was 
the faintest suggestion of a smile. “But I shall 
not sleep,” he added, simply. “There will be too 
much for me to do . 9 9 

“Then we are to listen for every message that 
comes?” said Karl. “Whether it is addressed to 
us or not?” 

“Everything,” said Schraft. “Without excep- 
tion. The messages that are of the greatest im- 
portance are those that we shall catch by acci- 
dent, if we have good fortune. You know the call 
— L U?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Very well. In five minutes we shall start. Test 
your instruments now with the land station. 
After that call Kiel and Cuxhaven, to see that the 
range is right. Soon I shall give you messages to 
be sent to the staff at Kiel. ’ 9 

The installation was in perfect order. That 
much they proved at once, and without difficulty. 
Scarcely had they finished their test with Kiel 
when the vessel began to shake. The powerful 


112 


ON BOARD 


engines, so vast in proportion to the compara- 
tively small size of the vessel herself, were at 
work, and they knew that the voyage had begun. 

For an hour they were busy with the sending of 
the messages that were brought to them from 
Commander Schraft. Answers came. And then 
for a time there was nothing for them to do. Karl 
sat at the desk, listening intently. In his ear there 
was a faint buzz, like the sound that may be heard 
in a telephone. Static electricity was disturbing 
the sensitive antennae that stretched between the 
masts high above their heads. Sometimes the 
flickering sounds seemed to have some meaning. 
But in a moment he knew that it was only the mys- 
terious static. And then, sharp and distinct, a new 
sound beat in his ears. A message was coming 
through. But the code was strange and un- 
familiar! He was listening to an English ship! 


CHAPTEE IX 


IN THE FOG 

As the mysterious symbols came through the 
air, to be caught by the delicate web above and 
so brought, magnified a hundred times, to his very 
ears, Karl wrote them down. Beneath his hand, 
as he looked at them, they seemed to make a mean- 
ingless jumble of letters. But it was not his busi- 
ness to think of that. He had only to write down 
the message, whatever its meaning might be, and 

send it as soon as he had it all, to Commander 

✓ 

Schraft. As he took down the symbols, too, he 
called them out to Heinrich. 

4 ‘Take all this down/’ he called. “Then we 
shall have a way of checking it off, later .’ 9 

In a few minutes the air was silent again, save 
for the flickering of the static electricity, and he 
called the seaman who stood by the door of the 
cabin, and sent the result of what he had over- 
heard to the commander. In a few moments 

113 


114 


ON BOARD 


Schraft joined them, the message in his hand. 

“This is exact ?” he said, pointing to the paper. 

“Yes, sir. It was in code — ” 

“That does them little good, those English ,’ 9 
said Schraft, showing his teeth in a broad smile. 
“Bah! What stupidity! They have not even 
had the sense yet to change their code from that 
which their ships used in peace! That code we 
have possessed for six months — we got it two 
days after they adopted it, when they learned that 
we had obtained a copy of the former one . 9 ’ 

Karl said nothing. 

“What you have just enabled me to learn was 
most important,” said Schraft, after a moment’s 
study. “Let nothing escape you.” 

He glanced at his watch. 

“We must be passing now through the furthest 
line of the British fleet, ’ ’ he said. ‘ ‘ In three hours 
we shall be among their big ships — the battleships 
and the battle cruisers. If we get through that 
line safely, we shall never stop until we are 
in the mouth of the Thames! We shall plant a 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


115 


crop there !” With that he turned and left them. 

They did not see him again that night. And, 
though they were supposed to stand watch and 
watch, both boys were too excited to be able to 
sleep. Through the windows, they could see that 
the night was amazingly black, naturally a favor- 
able condition for the work the Koenigin Luise had 
to do. When the door was opened, the fog came 
in, filling the room with its chilly dampness, but 
they exulted in that. 

“If only the fog holds !” said Heinrich. “It is 
a great thing to think that we can slip through 
their whole fleet, isn’t it, Karl?” 

“Yes, but we haven’t done it yet,” said Karl, 
dryly. “Don’t let us count our chickens before 
they’re hatched, Heinrich. It is no easy task. 
Commander Schraft will deserve well of Germany 
if he accomplishes it. To mine the mouth of the 
Thames! Why, even if this ship is lost, she will 
have done more effective work than half a dozen 
battleships of the first class could hope to ac- 
complish.” 


116 


ON BOARD 


It was after midnight before there was more 
work for them to do. 

First came Schraft. 

“Tune up your instruments,” he directed. 
“We are in tune with the British now. And for 
the messages we are to send there must be no 
chance of their detecting our code as we did 
theirs . 1 9 

So Karl and Heinrich, with the assistance of a 
mechanic, changed the length of the waves that 
their sender would produce. The pitch of their 
sender was altered, and now only a receiving sta- 
tion specially prepared would be able to under- 
stand. On the new pitch Heinrich, whose turn at 
the key it now was, called Helgoland by way of a 
test. The answer came at once. 

“So!” said Karl, with a smile. “If the Eng- 
lish stations pick that up, it will sound like static 
to them.” 

And now, for two hours, the wireless was busy 
indeed. Every few minutes there came another 
report to be sent. And each told of the laying of 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


117 


a mine, and gave its exact position. With these 
reports an officer in Helgoland, supplied with a 
chart, could mark the position of every mine that 
was laid, and this would be supplied to every Ger- 
man warship. 

Morning came, but not until both Karl and 
Heinrich, taking turns, had managed to sleep for 
an hour. Through their windows they could see 
the gradual breaking of the darkness. But they 
could see, too, that the fog persisted. There was 
scarcely a breath of air, and the thick mist hung 
on. It was a yellowish gray in color, and so heavy 
that it looked like pea soup. It seemed to be 
solid, indeed. 

Schraft, bearing the traces of his sleepless vigil 
in his eyes, came to them just before their break- 
fast was brought. 

“We are through the main body of the Eng^ 
lish fleet — well through,’ ’ he said. “In two hours 
more we will have laid our last mine, if all goes 
well. Then the fog may lift, if it likes! I don’t 
care what happens when our work is done, though 


118 


ON BOARD 


I should like to bring my ship back safely. But 
my orders are not to fight. It was expected that 
we should be captured. And yet I have known 
such fogs in these waters to last three days. If 
this one will only stay, we shall be back at Helgo- 
land before the British even know that we have 
visited them. ,, 

Eerie and mysterious were the daylight hours — 
far more so than those of darkness. Now, all 
about them, there were signs that they were in 
waters thickly populated. Sometimes the deep 
boom of a foghorn came to them. Once or twice 
dim shapes of other ships loomed up. But a 
master hand was guiding the Koenigin Luise that 
day. Again and again detention seemed certain. 
But each time the danger passed. Every few 
minutes, one of the boys still sent out a wireless 
report of the laying of another mine. 

And at last Schraft came to them again. He 
was smiling at last. 

4 'Send this message,” he said. "Say that 
the last mine is laid, and that we are home- 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


119 


ward bound. We have completed our mission. ” 

Suddenly there was a dull roar. For a moment 
the fog was split and they could see the thick, 
oily water. But then the fog closed down again. 
Shrieks and cries rose from the sea. Astonished 
and awed, the boys stared at Schraft. Then came 
another explosion, but one of a different sort this 
time, sharper, louder. 

“One of our mines was planted in the right 
spot,” said Schraft, coolly. “It has done its 
work. You understand now how they work? A 
contact mine explodes when a ship touches it. 
The explosion, if it is a warship that has struck, 
detonates the powder magazine. That is why it 
is more dangerous for a warship to strike such a 
mine than for a merchantman. Here, send this 
report ! ’ ’ 

He sat down and hastily wrote a report. His 
hand did not shake. Seemingly he was scarcely 
excited by the disaster that had occurred so sud- 
denly near them. 

“Can we not rescue some of the crew of the 


120 


ON BOARD 


ship that struck ?” Heinrich ventured to ask, in 
awestruck tones. 

Schraft’s eyes were full of pity, all at once. But 
he shook his head. 

“I have not the right to do that,” he said. “I 
should like to. It tears my heart to think of the 
brave men dying in the water. But my duty is to 
the fatherland. I must save my ship first. Even 
were that a German ship, we should have to steam 
away. Listen, my boys! Do you know what the 
order is if ships are attacked by a submarine?” 

They were silent. 

“If one ship is struck and is sinking, all the 
others must run away at full speed ! ” he said. ‘ ‘ It 
seems inhuman, heartless, but it is not. It is the 
stern, hard rule of war. For other ships to go to 
help the one that was attacked first would be 
to invite further attack. It is the rule in every 
navy — or it should be. Hard as it is, it is neces- 
sary. ’ * 

Then he left them. Both boys were sobered by 
the tragedy that had visited the hidden waters 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


121 


near them with such startling suddenness. What 
had actually happened they could only guess. But 
it took no vivid imagination to do that. What 
they had heard had told them all they needed to 
know. And now Karl, going to the window, was 
startled to feel a puff of air in his face. 

‘ ‘ Heinrich ! ’ ’ he said. “I feel a breath of 
wind ! ’ ’ 

“ There is usually wind at sea, Karl. That is 
nothing wonderful.’ ’ 

“No. But do you know what it means? If 
there is wind, the fog will be driven away. If 
the wind does come, we shall soon be in the open 
sea, where all the British ships can see us!” 

They stared at one another. And, unmistak- 
ably now, the fog was growing lighter. 

There was a sudden stir about the decks of the 
ship. Karl, looking out, saw that the lifeboats 
were being made ready for quick launching. The 
men were at quarters. And now the Koemgxn 
Luise began to throb more violently. Plainly she 
was to be crowded; Schraft meant to get as far 


122 


ON BOARD 


as possible from where they were before the fog 
lifted. 

4 4 Why are we going f aster f” asked Heinrich. 

4 ‘I suppose because it is likely that there will 
be other vessels going to the aid of the one that 
was blown up,” said Karl. “I think we’re in for 
it, Heinrich. I don’t know what will happen, but 
surely there will be plenty of excitement if the 
fog lifts and we are in the midst of English 
ships!” 

4 4 We won’t have a chance,” said Heinrich, 
cheerfully. 44 1 wonder if they’ll sink us or cap- 
ture us?” 

44 I don’t know,” said Karl. 4 4 Try your wire- 
less — we may have a message to send any minute, 
T think.” 

The spark crashed out; in a moment Heinrich 
nodded. 

4 4 It ’s all right, ’ ’ he said. 4 4 They answer. Karl, 
I wonder when we’ll get back to Dusseldorf. If 
we’re lucky, we’ll be prisoners in England before 
night, I think. If not — ” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


123 


And then it suddenly grew lighter. The fog 
was vanishing mysteriously. Looking out, Karl 
saw a shape looming up in the fog as the banks 
of mist grew thin. In a moment he could make it 
out. 

‘ 4 It’s a lightship!” he cried. “I can see her 
plainly! We must have been terribly close!” 

From the decks there came a sudden roar of 
cheering. And in the same moment Schraft came 
in. His eyes were like pools of fire, and his face 
was flushed with delight. 

‘ ‘ Tell the station at Helgoland that the British 
battleship Cymbria has struck one of the mines 
we laid, and is sinking fast!” he ordered. ‘‘And 
that the fog is clearing away and that there seems 
to be no chance for us to escape, but that all our 
mines are planted. Then leave your key. You 
had better come on deck, to be ready if anything 
happens!” 

He disappeared, and in a moment Heinrich was 
sending out the news that, within a few hours, 
would be cheered by the anxious crowds watching 


124 


ON BOARD 


the bulletins in Berlin, in Hamburg, in their 
own Dusseldorf. A British dreadnaught! The 
Koenigin Luise was a small price to pay for such 
a prize! 

Then when the message had been sent, the two 
boys gladly obeyed the order to go to the decks. 
Scarcely a trace of the fog was left now, and as 
they raced out they saw the great battleship sink- 
ing, nearly two miles away. All about her were 
smaller vessels, and others, light cruisers, with 
two or three destroyers, were steaming toward 
them. Even as they looked, they heard a dull 
roar, and saw one of the cruisers list sharply. 
Then a column of black smoke spurted up amid- 
ships, and she crumpled and seemed to go to 
pieces. 

‘ * Another mine ! ’ 9 cried Karl. i i Her men should 
be safe, though. Yes, the others are stopping to 
pick them up. We have a chance yet — that will 
check the pursuit !” 

The Koenigin Luise was racing northward now, 
away from the British ships. But just as there 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


125 


seemed a chance that she might escape, she shook 
violently. And out of the water near by rose a 
black shape. 

“A submarine — and she’s hit us with a 
torpedo ! ’ ’ cried an officer. * 6 Out with the boats l ’ ’ 



CHAPTER X 


THE RESCUE FROM THE SEA 

‘ ‘ They -gave us no chance ! They did not even 
ask if we would surrender !” cried Heinrich, 
angrily. “We were not going to fight — ” 

“What chance did our mines give the two ships 
they have sunk?” said Karl. “What they have 
done is as fair as what we did when we planted 
our mines. We took our chance, as they did — as 
all must, in war.” 

But there was little time for speech. Already 
the Koenigin Luise was sinking fast. And now, 
while they watched the preparations that were 
being made for launching the boats, there came a 
second and more terrible explosion. It was the 
boilers. Water had come in too swiftly through 
the great hole the torpedo had torn in the liner’s 
side to prevent that disaster. Karl and Heinrich 
were both lifted from their feet by the force of the 
explosion. The next moment they were struggling 

127 


128 


ON BOARD 


for their lives in the icy water of the North Sea. 

By some miracle neither was hurt. Karl was 
a magnificent swimmer. He came up almost at 
once, and a little distance away he saw Heinrich, 
swimming in circles, as if he were dazed — as, in- 
deed, there was good reason for him to be. All 
about them other men were struggling in the 
water, making for bits of driftwood and wreckage. 
He swam as quickly as he could, hampered as he 
was by his heavy clothing, toward his chum. In 
a moment he was able to make Heinrich hear him. 

“To your left — swim to your left, Heinrich !” he 
cried. “There is something there that we can 
cling to. We will be picked up soon — there are 
two destroyers coming up very fast. ’ ’ 

Heinrich understood, and they were soon to- 
gether again, clinging desperately to a spar, that 
gave them a precarious foothold. The sea was 
calm after the fog of the last twenty-four hours, 
but it was beginning to get rougher, with the ris- 
ing wind. And the sea is never wholly calm in an 
open seaway, of course; on a river or lake the 


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129 


water into which the crew of the Koenigin Luise 
had been plunged would have been regarded as 
more than rough. 

It was intensely cold. 

“I’m certainly glad they made us wear these 
heavy clothes,” said Karl, his teeth chattering. 
“We’d freeze without them!” 

“If they’re going to rescue us, I wish they’d 
hurry up about it,” said Heinrich. “Will they 
save many, I wonder?” 

‘ ‘ The submarine has picked up some already, ’ ’ 
said Karl. “See? She is far from us, though. 
We must wait until the destroyers come up.” 

And although it seemed like hours as they clung 
to the spar in the icy water, it was really only a 
few minutes before they were dragged up into a 
small boat. Half a dozen others were with them, 
but all of them had fainted from exhaustion. They 
were men who had found no support, but had 
been obliged to keep afloat as best they could, and 
for them help had come just in time. 

On the destroyer they were huddled below 


130 


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decks as soon as they boarded her, and sternly 
bidden to keep still. Though the English sailors 
had no mind to neglect the work of rescue, it was 
plain they were angry because of the disasters 
these German prisoners had caused. 

And, as a matter of fact, the rescued men did 
not fare badly. It was warm below decks on the 
destroyer, and it was warmth that they chiefly 
craved. It was not long before an officer appeared. 

‘ * This isn ’t any hotel, ’ 9 he said, with a touch of 
bitterness in his voice, 6 ‘but we’ll do the best we 
can for you until we get you ashore. That’ll be in 
an hour or so — if we don’t strike one of your 
mines.” 

“I hope you will!” cried one German sailor. 

1 1 What if it costs us our lives? It will bring the 
dav nearer!” 

The Englishman smiled, but he made no answer. 
Karl and Heinrich wondered a little that the man 
was not punished. After all, the Englishman was 
an officer, and entitled to respectful treatment. 
But they said little. In spite of their narrow 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


131 


escape and the excitement of the whole swift 
episode, both were beginning to give way to a feel- 
ing of depression that was the inevitable reaction. 
They thought of Commander Schraft and the 
many others who were not among those they saw 
around them. What had happened to them? 

“I hope the commander was saved,” whispered 
Karl. “It would be too sad to think that he could 
never return to receive the praise that he should 
have for sinking at least two of the British 
ships.” 

“He may be on another destroyer or on the sub- 
marine, ’ ’ said Heinrich. c 1 I hope so. ’ ’ 

They could see nothing. They could only stand, 
huddled close with half a hundred other rescued 
men, in a close and stifling prison, which soon 
began to have a disagreeable and overpowering 
smell as the wet clothes dried out. But in a few 
minutes the rapid throbbing of the engines, 
vibrating through the thin hull of the destroyer, 
told them that she was moving. 

“We shall be in England soon,” said Karl. He 


132 


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smiled sadly. i ‘I wonder when we shall get away! 
Dusseldorf is a long way from ns now, Heinrich !” 

“Perhaps we can escape/ ’ said Heinrich. “I 
should like to do that, Karl, to show these English 
that they cannot hold us. ’ ’ 

“There might be a chance, Heinrich/ ’ said 
Karl, brightening a little. “English we can speak, 
and nearly as well as an Englishman, I believe. 
We are both better at their tongue than at 
French. ’ ’ 

“You mean that if we could get away from 
wherever they imprison us, there would be a 
chance for us to escape recapture? Yes. I 
wonder where they will take us?” 

“To a camp somewhere, I think. Listen, Hein- 
rich. If we could get away, we might be of some 
use. If we were to pretend that we had been 
taken on the Koettigin Luise against our will, they 
might treat us differently. Do you see? We 
might learn many things in England, and, if we 
could get away to tell them, who knows what we 
might not accomplish?” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


133 


But they were not allowed to make any more 
plans. All the prisoners were ordered up on deck, 
and when they reached the deck they found them- 
selves in a harbor and close to a dock. Karl 
thought he recognized the town as Harwich, but 
he was not quite sure. The prisoners were 
marched up a narrow gangplank to the dock, and 
a squad of soldiers surrounded them. And then 
the destroyer turned and was off again. 

It was evident that news of the disaster to the 
British ships caused by the mines they had planted 
had already spread, for as they were marched, 
guarded by the soldiers, from the dock and into a 
waterfront street, the Germans faced a jeering, 
angry crowd. Only the presence of the soldiers 
saved the prisoners from rough handling. And 
Karl was not sorry, for one, when they came to a 
great gate, through which they marched into a 
courtyard. 

“For the time you will stay here,” said an Eng- 
lish officer, speaking in German. “Later on you 
will be taken to other quarters. You will be 


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guarded here, of course, and I need not say that 
any man who attempts to escape will be shot in- 
stantly.” 

Here, though they were still prisoners, there was 
room for all, and there was also plenty of fresh 
air, in welcome contrast to the stuffiness of their 
quarters on the destroyer that had belied her 
name by rescuing all of them from death in the 
sea. Most of the men were sullen and dispirited. 
They resented bitterly the idea of being captives. 
There were no officers among them; it was plain 
that any who had been rescued must have been 
brought ashore in other vessels. 

1 ‘ Most of these men are not navy sailors,” said 
Karl. ‘ ‘At least that’s the way it seems to me. 
If they were, they’d be more cheerful, because 
they’d know that this was what was to be ex- 
pected. ’ ’ 

“I suppose they’re the men who were the crew 
of the Koenigin Luise when she was a pleasure 
cruiser,” suggested Heinrich. 4 ‘ Don’t all of the 
merchant sailors belong to the reserve?” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


135 


“Yes, they do, of course. And they’d naturally 
be the men for this sort of service. They weren’t 
supposed to man guns and fight. I wish I knew 
where Commander Schraft was! I hope he is 
safe.” 

“I think he had as good a chance as anyone 
else, Karl. He would have wanted to be the last 
to leave the ship, of course, if she had sunk in the 
ordinary way. But she didn’t. If everyone was 
pitched into the water the way we were, there 
wasn’t much choice for anyone about going first 
or last. We must all have gone together. And 
if that’s so, I think he ought to have been picked 
up, because that English submarine was near 
where he and most of the other officers were.” 

Then there was an interruption to their talk. 
An officer appeared, and the prisoners were 
mustered into lines. The officer walked swiftly 
down the lines, and here and there told some man 
wl om he saw had suffered some wound or injury, 
to fall out. These men, Karl guessed, would be 
sent to a hospital. When the officer came to them 


136 


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lie stopped, staring at them in amazement. 

“My word!” he said. “You’re only boys! 
Here, fall out! We won’t put you in with the 
men. Your mothers might write to the Times 
about it if we did ! ’ ’ 

Hotly as they resented the sneer, there was 
nothing for them to do but obey, while the Eng- 
lish soldiers who overheard snickered. Soon they 
saw the men who had not been hurt drawn up into 
a column and marched out through the gate. 

“Now, then,” said the officer, returning to 
them, “what were you doing on board the 
Koenigin Luise, elif Stowaways? Trying to see 
something of war?” 

Inspiration came to Karl in that moment. He 
nudged Heinrich, and hung his head, sheepishly. 
He did not speak, but there was confession in his 
look. 

“I thought so!” said the officer, good-naturedly. 
“Well, you’ve had a narrow escape, my lads, and 
a sharp lesson, I hope. I’ll send you to London 
with a batch of civilian prisoners. They’ll look 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


137 


after you up there. A military detention camp is 
no place for boys. ’ ’ 

It went against the grain for Karl to deceive 
even an enemy, but he knew that he must not let 
such scruples weigh with him if there was a chance 
to make it easier for them to escape. He was glad 
that Heinrich had played up to him and had not 
blurted out the* truth. Karl himself, indeed, had 
been sorely tempted to do that, for he was proud, 
and with good reason, of the really important part 
he and his chum had played in the great exploit 
of Commander Schraft and the lost Koenigin Luise . 

“We’re not fighting with children,” the Eng- 
lishman went on. 4 4 You ’ll go to London as civil 
prisoners, and if you behave yourselves you’ll 
have nothing to complain of. Briggs!” 

4 4 Yes, sir!” said a corporal, advancing with a 
salute. 

4 4 Take these two boys to the station. Turn 
them over with my compliments to Lieuten- 
ant Palmer. They’re to be delivered in London 
as non-combatant alien enemies.” 


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ON BOARD 


“Yes, sir!” said Briggs, saluting again. “Now 
then, my lads ! Forward march ! Get a move on ! ” 

Many curious glances followed them as they 
walked through the streets of Harwich toward the 
railway station. But there were no hostile demon- 
strations, such as had been threatened when they 
had passed through the same streets in company 
with the captured sailors. 

“We’re in luck, Heinrich,” said Karl, in Ger- 
man. “We might have been sent somewhere else, 
where we would have had no chance. Don’t try 
to get away, no matter how good a chance there 
seems to he.” 

“Here, stow that!” said Briggs, angrily. “If 
you ’ve got to talk, talk English, and mighty little 
of that! You can all right, because I heard you 
talkin’ to the lef tenant as well as if you hadn’t 
been a couple of sausage eatin’ Dutchmen!” 

His words were rough, but his manner was 
kindly enough. And when he finally saw them 
aboard of the London train, he waved a cheery 
and friendly farewell. 


CHAPTER XI 


THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY 

Karl and Heinricli found themselves in a third- 
class compartment of the train. In one corner sat 
a guard, a soldier, with a rifle thrown across his 
knees. 

“ ’Elio!” he said. “More spies, eh? Well, the 
more the merrier, say I! Wot? Boys? My eye!” 

Then he subsided. Karl and Heinrich looked 
around. They found that there were several 
others in the compartment already. Three men 
were unmistakably German, apparently seamen 
who had been taken from ships. But about 
another passenger there was more doubt. He was 
expensively dressed, and he wore a bored expres- 
sion. 

“My friend,” he said, to the soldier, “haven’t 
I asked you before not to call me a spy? I'm not, 
you know. I'm a perfectly harmless American. 
Til admit that I hope the Kaiser will win this 

139 


140 


ON BOARD 


war. But that’s because I understand he’s a 
bright man, and if he conquered England he 
would undoubtedly have you and the others who 
have landed me here shot — unless he had you 
boiled in oil!” 

“Just as you sye, sir,” said the guard, ami- 
ably. “I’ll call you a Chinaman if it’ll make you 
feel any better. ’ ’ 

Then the American began to declaim again. 

“This country is mad on the subject of spies,” 
he said. “It sees a spy in every man who isn’t 
an Englishman. I suppose if the war lasts long 
enough, it will get so that every man who doesn ’t 
drop his aitches will be shot at sunrise every morn- 
ing in ’Yde Park.” 

Heinrich laughed. But Karl was looking with 
more attention at this man who could tiy to be 
funny while he was a prisoner. He had noticed the 
sharp look that the American had given both 
Heinrich and himself when they had been pushed 
into the compartment, and he had an idea that 
there was something forced about his gaiety and 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


141 


good humor. Karl had good reason to know that 
there was more than a little excuse for the Eng- 
lish fear of spies — although it was a late hour 
for that fear to show itself. Germany, believing 
that it was a country’s duty to be prepared for 
anything that might happen, had long maintained 
secret agents in England. And it happened, also, 
that Karl knew that a good many of the ablest 
men employed in this sort of work were Germans 
who had acquired a natural disguise by becoming 
to a great extent Americanized through a long 
residence in the United States. 

He wondered if this indignant American might 
not really be one of these spies. If so, he might 
have information of importance. Karl had no 
feeling against spies. He knew that the work of 
the spy, while it brings no public honor and earns 
rewards that must be enjoyed in secret, requires 
bravery of the highest order. In war the fate of 
the spy is a shameful and instant death. In time 
of peace, his own government must invariably dis- 
own him if he is caught. And Karl had heard 


142 


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many stories of famous spies who had supplied 
the general staff in Berlin with information of the 
greatest value. 

Therefore, when, after the train started, the 
American let his eyes meet Karl’s fully and di- 
rectly for the first time, Karl did not look away. 
Instead he met the other’s gaze steadily and gave 
the barest nod, so slight that the soldier, even if 
he had noticed it at all, could scarcely have at- 
tached any significance to it. Karl was sure, how- 
ever, that if his suspicions were correct, the Amer- 
ican would understand. And he was not surprised, 
therefore, when after a little while the American 
changed his seat and sat down beside him. 

“Hungry, son?” asked the American. “I’ve 
got some chocolate I’ll share with you. They 
don’t seem to have a dining-car on this train. I 
think I’ll complain of the service on this road!” 

He took two cakes of chocolate from his pocket, 
and handed one to each of the boys. Heinrich be- 
gan to eat his at once, and threw away the silver 
paper in which it was wrapped. But Karl opened 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


143 


his carefully, and, as he had half expected, found 
that within the tinfoil there was a thin sheet of 
white paper. On this he could make out writing. 
He thrilled at this confirmation of his guess. It 
was hard to read what was written there, but he 
managed it. 

“I am a German, like you,” it read. “They 
suspect me. I am afraid I shall not be able to get 
away. If you go free, send this message to the 
Imperial Chancellor. He will understand. The 
message is: ‘Six seventeen forty-five one hun- 
dred and fourteen elbe.’ No matter how the mes- 
sage reaches the Chancellor, he will know it is 
from me and what it means. If you understand, 
ask me for more chocolate.” 

Frank studied the writing carefully. His lips 
moved almost imperceptibly as he committed the 
numbers and the single word of the mysterious 
code message to memory. 

“Six seventeen forty-five one hundred and 
fourteen elbe.” 

He was sure of it at last. Karl could trust his 


144 


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memory. It was well trained, and his marks in 
the yearly examinations proved that the training 
had not been wasted. He slipped a look at the 
guard; then, rolling up the tiny fragment of tis- 
sue paper, he put it in his mouth. 

4 4 That chocolate was good ! ’ ’ he said, aloud. 4 4 I 
wish I had some more ! ’ 9 

4 4 There’s gratitude for you!” exclaimed the 
American, with a high-pitched, nervous laugh. 
4 4 He eats all the chocolate I have and wants 
more ! 9 9 

Heinrich looked curiously at Karl. He had, of 
course, entirely missed the byplay between Karl 
and the spy, as Karl now knew him to be. And it 
was utterly impossible for Karl to explain to him 
just then. Stupid the guard might be, but not 
stupid enough to make that possible. Karl was not 
anxious to talk, at any rate. He wanted to think. 
Now it was doubly important that he and Hein- 
rich should escape. It was evident that the mes- 
sage that had been entrusted to him for delivery 
was of the utmost importance. In those few 


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145 


cryptic numbers there might be information that 
would turn the scale in some vast operation. 

“I will get that message through !” Karl vowed 
to himself. But he was obliged to admit the task 
was one that seemed to be beyond his power. 
First he must get away. He and Heinrich, that 
is, must get their liberty. And then, even if they 
were free, there remained the problem of getting 
out of England, since it seemed hopeless to think 
of sending any message from England to Ger- 
many, and especially a message in code. How- 
ever, that phase of the problem was not one to 
worry about until they were free, for there seemed 
a small enough prospect of that. 

The train was moving slowly, but its progress 
was none the less steady and sure. In a few hours, 
two or three at most, they would be in London. 
Karl had no idea what fate might be in store for 
them there, but he was tolerably certain that he 
and Heinrich would be closely watched. They 
might be released, but it was doubtful. And even 
if they were, they would be under surveillance. 


146 


ON BOARD 


“No,” he said to himself. “If we get as far 
as London, there will be little chance. We must 
try to escape from the train before it reaches 
there . 9 9 

All sorts of wild plans came into his head. He 
had read stories of prisoners on their way to jail 
who had leaped from moving trains. But his com- 
mon sense told him that there would be only one 
chance of escape in a thousand if he resorted to 
such a way. Then, too, he could only do that by 
himself. And he was determined not even to try 
to escape no matter how urgent the necessity of 
getting the message through might be, unless 
Heinrich escaped with him. 

One thing he could do. He saw that the soldier 
who was on guard was paying little attention to 
his prisoners. As a matter of fact, there was no 
reason why he should watch them with special 
care. Both the doors of the compartment were 
locked; it was almost impossible for anyone to 
get out, without making so much noise that de- 
tection of his effort was certain. And so Karl 


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147 


was able to take Heinrich’s hand in his and tap 
on it with one finger. His tapping was not at 
random; he was using the Morse code, and Hein- 
rich understood him perfectly. 

First Karl told what had happened when he 
had received the cake of chocolate. He carefully 
explained that he had a message that must be 
delivered. 

“We must try to escape,” he said, in his silent 
language. ‘ ‘ If I make any move, watch me, and 
follow me. I will not be able to explain. You 
will have to try to guess what it is that I am try- 
ing to do. We must seize any chance that comes. 
Some trifling thing that we cannot foresee may 
give us our chance. Now in case you get away 
and I do not, I will signal the message that is to 
be sent to the Imperial Chancellor. Repeat it to 
me, to be sure that you have it properly.” 

He tapped out the mysterious symbols, and 
after a moment Heinrich repeated them, his finger 
beating against Karl’s wrist. 

“Good! Now we are ready,” signalled Karl. 


148 


ON BOARD 


“How we can escape I do not know, but there 
must be some chance.” 

The train was moving very irregularly now. 
It seemed that the line ahead must be crowded, 
for they would go forward at a fair speed for a 
few minutes, then slow down, and then stop al- 
together, only to start up again. Karl guessed 
that troops were being moved, and, indeed, trains 
going in the other direction, toward the sea, con- 
firmed his guess, for from the windows he could 
see that they were full of soldiers. 

“Your train gets slower all the time, my 
friend,” said the self-styled American to the sol- 
dier, presently. “We ought to have been in Lon- 
don an hour ago. And instead we’re still in the 
marshes.” 

“You needn’t mind,” said the soldier, with a 
laugh. “ You ’re a good sight better off than you ’ll 
be when you get to London. They’ll put you in 
jail there, like as not.” 

“I doubt — ” 

Whatever the American was about to say was 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


149 


never finished. For at that moment there was a 
sharp jolt; then the sides of the train seemed to 
collapse, and all the occupants of the compartment 
were thrown to the floor in a tangled heap. 

“ Train behind ran into us!” gasped Karl. He 
reached for his chum and to his delight he found 
that he was unhurt. The soldier was senseless, 
having been struck on the head. 

For a moment Karl thought only of the disaster. 
All about them the shrieks and groans of the in- 
jured made a hideous din. But then he realized 
that this was the chance he had told Heinrich was 
sure to come. The compartment, or what was left 
of it, had been thrown off the tracks. In a mo- 
ment he grasped Heinrich by the hand. 

1 t Come on!” he cried. “We can get out! 
There’s a chance for us, at least.” 

Somehow they managed to get out. They found 
themselves on the edge of a steep embankment. 
Below, water gleamed in what looked like a marsh. 
It was an uninviting, even a dangerous prospect, 
but Karl did not hesitate. 


150 


ON BOARD 


“Down!.” lie cried. “They ’ll remember that 
there are prisoners on the train in a minute. 
We’ve got to get away now. We can get through 
somehow ! ’ ’ 

Hand in hand they raced down the embank- 
ment. Fortune favored them, as it is likely to 
favor those bold enough to seize a chance. 
There was water where they landed, but it was 
not deep. And after a hundred yards of slimy, 
muddy plunging through the marsh, they reached 
firm ground. But they did not stop running. Not 
until they reached a clump of woods did they rest 
and wait to catch their breath. 

Behind them, from the direction in which they 
had run, a shot or two rang out. 

“I thought so!” said Karl, grimly. “Some of 
the others waited too long. The time to run was 
when everyone was shocked by the accident.” 

They were breathing hard. 

“We’ve escaped! We’re free!” panted Hein- 
rich. 

“We’ve only started to escape,” said Karl. 


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151 


“The hardest task is still before ns. We’ve got 
to get other clothes, first of all.” 

“I never thought of that!” said Heinrich, in 
despair. 



% 


CHAPTER Xn 


A CHANGE OF CLOTHES 

But Karl was as little disposed to give way to 
despair as to a premature rejoicing. The dif- 
ference between him and Heinrich was that he 
foresaw difficulties, and so did not allow them to 
come upon him suddenly with discouraging force. 

4 4 We ’ll manage it somehow, ’ ’ he said. 4 4 1 don ’t 
care what we do, Heinrich. If we can’t get clothes 
any other way, we’ll steal them!” 

Heinrich stared at him. 

4 4 Why, that’s dishonest — ” he began. 

4 4 We ’re in the enemy’s country,” said Karl, 
bluntly. 44 Just now we cannot think of ourselves, 
or of what we would like to do. Our duty is to the 
fatherland. And, by hook or by crook, we’ve got 
to get that message to the Imperial Chancellor. 
After we get back to Germany, we can make right 
anything we do that seems wrong. We would be 
caught the first time we showed ourselves in a 

153 


154 


ON BOARD 


village in these clothes, Heinrich. And Pm not 
going to be canght again until I have sent that 
message ! ’ ’ 

“We shall have to wait until dark, then,” said 
Heinrich. “If we stay here in these woods, we 
have a chance, I think. Don’t you?” 

“Yes. And that’s just what I mean to do. 
Then we can steal out and see what sort of country 
this is. I think we are some distance from any 
town. But I don’t know, and we dare not guess. 
We must be sure before we run any risk at all.” 

“I am sleepy,” said Heinrich. “I feel as if I 
couldn’t stay awake any longer.” 

“Lie down then, and sleep,” said Karl. “I will 
stay awake and keep watch until you are rested. 
Then I will sleep while you watch. Aren’t you 
hungry, Heinrich?” 

4 ‘ I believe I could eat a horse, Karl ! But it is 
not the time to think of that. ’ ’ 

Karl smiled to himself, but he was not really 
surprised. He had always known that in a real 
emergency Heinrich was to be trusted. Now, 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


155 


while Heinrich lay down and fell at once into a 
deep, peaceful sleep, Karl watched and thought. 
The railway accident had certainly come to their 
aid in a fashion little short of miraculous, and yet 
it had only opened the way to freedom and to suc- 
cess in sending the all-important message. There 
was a good chance, he thought, that no very dili- 
gent search would be made for them. But even 
so, there was sure to be danger. 

“Heinrich and I are not English, after all,” he 
said to himself. “We speak their language well, 
but do we speak it well enough to deceive an 
Englishman? We are likely to be arrested any 
time. And even if we go free, how are we to send 
the message?” 

He knew that there could be no direct com- 
munication with Germany. A message might be 
sent to America and back across the ocean, or to 
Holland or Denmark, and so, through a neutral 
land, to Berlin. But the censorship, he was sure, 
would apply as strictly to such neutral countries 
as to Germany itself. The best chance was to get 


156 


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out of England, to escape themselves, and then, 
when they were safe on the continent, to send the 
message. And always the first problem remained 
to be solved — the acquisition of clothes that would 
make them look like ordinary English hoys. 

While the shadows lengthened and evening ap- 
proached, he wrestled with the problem, and he 
was no nearer a solution when Heinrich at last 
woke up with a start. 

“I am a selfish pig, Karl,” said Heinrich. “I 
did not mean to sleep so long. But you should 
have waked me up. Sleep now. It is your turn. ’ ’ 

Karl hesitated. It was almost dark enough, he 
thought, to begin the search for other clothes. But 
he was very tired; the day had been full of ter- 
rible and exhausting experiences, and they had 
had very little sleep on the Koenigin Luise the 
night before. 

“I think I will sleep for an hour, Heinrich,” he 
said. “But wake me then without fail. I am 
going to sleep only because I think I will be able 
to see things more clearly after I awake.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


157 


But there was no need for Heinrich to wake him. 
Karl had the cnrions ability that some people pos- 
sess, seemingly by instinct, to set a sort of mental 
alarm clock and awake at any given moment. 
And, just as Heinrich was reluctantly deciding 
that it was time to rouse him, he sat up. 

“No one has come by?” he asked, at once on 
the alert. 

“No,” said Heinrich. “There is no road very 
near us, I think.” 

“Let us go and find one, then,” said Karl. “I 
have an idea.” 

They walked through the woods, and after go- 
ing perhaps a quarter of a mile, stopped suddenly 
at the sound of voices. 

“That must be a road. There are people pass- 
ing whom we hear,” whispered Heinrich. 

“Yes. Come on, very quietly. We will hide in 
a hedge. I want to see them.” 

Three men were walking toward them. Karl 
listened eagerly and when they had passed on he 
turned to Heinrich. 


158 


ON BOAKD 


“We will go the way that they are going,” he 
said. 

“All right. But why that way rather than the 
other?” 

“That was just why I wanted to listen to them. 
I wanted to find out whether they were going to a 
village or coming away from it. They have just 
left the village. So we know now which way not 
to go. If we go along this way we are almost sure 
to come to a house where we will have a chance 
to find what we want. ’ ’ 

“Oh, I see!” said Heinrich. “That is a good 
idea, Karl. I did not think of that at all.” 

Keeping to the fields, lest they encounter some- 
one on the road who might take too keen an in- 
terest in them, they trudged along for nearly two 
miles. Several times they came to small cottages, 
hut around those they made detours. 

“There would scarcely be a chance for us to find 
what we are looking for here,” said Karl, at the 
first of these. “We must look for a larger house. 
There must be some big place we shall come to.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 159 

And at last they found a neatly trimmed box- 
wood hedge barring their way. They got through 
it with some little difficulty, and found themselves 
in a park-like enclosure, where old trees rose above 
a smooth velvety turf. 

“Ah, now if we have a little luck, we shall be 
all right !” said Karl. “Bear in, away from the 
road. I think we are likely to find a lodge by 
the gate. This place looks big enough and well 
kept enough to have something of the sort.” 

They went on over the turf for some distance, 
until, on a piece of rising ground, they came in 
sight of the great house of the place, an old, red 
brick mansion. Not a light showed from its 
many windows and the entire place seemed to be 
deserted. 

“Oh, we are in luck, Heinrich,” said Karl. “I 
believe the house is empty! And it is almost sure 
to have what we want!” 

“Don’t you think there may be burglar alarms, 
Karl?” 

“Good boy, Heinrich! I hadn’t thought of that. 


160 


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Yes, there may be. They’d leave the great house 
empty, but there’ll be men at the gate and in cot- 
tages, probably, to answer an alarm. Now let me 
see — I had a pair of pliers last night that I slipped 
into my pocket in the wireless room — yes, here 
they are! We’ll see if we can’t find those wires 
and cut them.” 

They were careful in approaching the house. 
And when they came to windows that seemed to 
be those of a billiard room, with wide bows, Karl 
gave a little cry. 

“Do you see that open window!” he said. “I 
believe that’s a trap! A burglar would think that 
would make it easy for him to get in — and as soon 
as he pushed the window open the hells would 
ring. Let’s see if we can’t find a wire leading 
from that window.” 

“Here it is,” said Heinrich, a minute later. 
“At least it’s a wire. And I can’t find any other. 
We’ll cut it, anyhow. We’ve got to take one 
chance. Even cutting the wire may ring the alarm. 
But not unless it’s the very newest sort of burglar 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


161 


alarm. And this doesn’t look like the sort of place 
that would go in for the latest German and Ameri- 
can inventions. ’ ’ 

In a moment he cut the wire, and it sprang up 
and slapped him in the face. But he only smiled, 
for no din of clanging bells followed the breaking 
of the wire. 

“We’ll wait a minute,” he said. “If nothing 
happens, we can go in. I hope my matches will 
strike. They got wet this morning, but they’ve 
had time to get dry again. ’ ’ 

“I think it’s safe now, Karl. Let’s go in.” 

They crawled through the window. They felt 
the curious sensation of honorable boys who were 
doing something that was, in appearance at least, 
dishonorable, even if it was fully justified by the 
extraordinary fact of war, that for them wiped 
out, in the interest of the fatherland, so many of 
the rules by which they had been taught to guide 
their lives. But they did not hesitate. 

Bending low, so that he could not be seen 


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should anyone chance to be within sight of the 
window, Karl struck a match. In its light he saw 
where the door was, and in a moment they were 
out of the billiard room and in the hall. Here, 
with no windows about, it was safe to let the light 
of a match fall more freely, and just as it was out, 
Karl pounced upon an electric torch — a discovery 
of the greatest value. With this they were able 
to find their way up the stairs. 

1 ‘ Up to the third floor ! ’ ’ whispered Karl. “We 
want to find the room where the boys slept. It 
would be a joke on us if there had never been any 
boys in the family, though, wouldn’t it?” 

‘ 4 Don’t think of it! It would be too awful, 
Karl! After breaking in this way! I feel like a 
thief, even though I know we have a right to do 
this.” 

On and up they went. And on the third floor 
the first room they entered proved to be the right 
one. It was unmistakably a boy’s room. And in 
a closet hung a dozen suits of clothes, in a condi- 
tion more or less good. In the closet, too, where 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


16* 


no ray of light could reach a window and betray 
them, they changed their clothes. 

“Now we look English, at least !” said Karl. 

“Karl,” said Heinrich, “Pm going to leave a 
note for whoever owns these things. I’m going to 
tell him why we are taking them. ’ 9 

“All right, Heinrich. That’s not a bad idea, 
really. It will make me feel better, too,” replied 
Karl. 

Heinrich scribbled the note, and they left it on 
the bed in the room from which they had taken 
the clothes. Then, still lighting their way with an 
occasional flash from the electric torch, they made 
their way out of the house. Not a sound pursued 
them, and in ten minutes from the time when 
they had completed their transformation by means 
of the “borrowed” clothes, they were in the road 
again. 

“And now,” said Karl, “for something to eat! 
You’re a real hero, Heinrich, and if the Kaiser 
knew how you had starved without a word of 
complaint all this day, you’d have an Iron Cross!” 


164 


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‘ ‘ Do you think it will be safe to try to get some- 
thing, Karl? I — I’ll wait until morning if you 
think it’s better!” 

‘ ‘ No. We must take that chance, Heinrich. We 
have a lot to do even now, though we have ac- 
complished a good deal. What is really the 
hardest part of our work remains. And we can ’t 
hope to escape without meeting some English 
people. We must face them some time — and as 
well now as any other time. I am going into the 
first inn we come to. We will find out whether 
we really look like English boys.” 

“ You’d better do most of the talking, Karl. 
You do it better than I, I’m sure.” 

They came, after a mile or so, to a small village, 
which naturally boasted an inn. Boldly they went 
into the parlor, and Karl called for the landlord. 

6 1 We ’re tired and hungry, ’ ’ he said. ‘ 4 Can you 
give us some supper?” 

“There’s not much in the house, sir,” said the 
landlord. “Bacon and eggs. If you’ll share the 
table with this gentleman, sir, I’ll give you what 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


165 


I have. He’s looking for some Germans as 
escaped from the accident, sir — dirty spies, young 
gentlemen ! Sit you down ! ’ 9 


« 


CHAPTER XIII 


A WINDFALL 

Karl dared not look at Heinricli. In a daze he 
let his eyes rest on the man who already sat at the 
table. He was a middle-aged, athletic looking 
Englishman. 

“Sit down, lads,” he said, amiably. “Do yon 
live around here? No — yon needn’t tell me yon 
don’t, for I know everyone for miles around. On 
a walking trip, I expect?” 

“Yes. We’ve been walking through the 
country,” said Karl. He had hard work to keep 
the hysterical note out of his voice, so great was 
his relief, for it was plain that they passed muster; 
that they looked and spoke enough like English 
boys not to arouse suspicion. 

“I’m covering some country myself,” said the 
Englishman. “Only I’m doing it on a motor- 
cycle. I suppose you heard of the accident on the 
line? Three or four of the German prisoners they 

167 


168 


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were taking up to London from Harwich escaped. 
We’ve rounded up all except two young fellows — 
sailors, they were. But they’ll be caught before 
morning. ’ 9 

‘ ‘ I wish we could help you ! 9 9 said Karl. ‘ 6 Have 
you any idea of where they went? I don’t see 
how they could get very far.” 

“They can’t. Oh, we’ll catch them right 
enough. They’ll try to get up to London, I think. 
There are all sorts of German spies there — men 
we don’t even know are Germans, you know. If 
they get with any of those gentry, we ’ll probably 
never catch them. But we’ve got a net drawn 
pretty tightly for them. ’ ’ 

“I should think they might try to get to sea,” 
suggested Heinrich. 

“Oh, never! They couldn’t get a boat. We’re 
not even looking for them along the coast. Along 
the roads to London and inland — that is where 
we’ll find them. Ah, here is our supper!” 

All three of them fell to heartily enough. Karl 
and Heinrich, for all the fright they had had at 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


169 


the landlord ’s words at first, were hungry enough 
to forget any danger they might be running. And, 
indeed, if they could sit at the same table with 
one of the men who was hunting them, it seemed 
that they were in no great danger. 

“Have there been many spies caught down 
here, sir?” asked Karl, presently, when the land- 
lord had been sent for a second helping. 

“Not so many that we can prove are spies,” 
said the Englishman. “The best catch we made 
was a secret wireless plant that we raided yester- 
day. My boy spotted that — and he’s only fifteen! 
A Boy Scout and bright as a button. It’s a new 
sort of dodge — only a sending station, we think. 
No mast, but it’s on a cliff, right on the water’s 
edge. We picked up a couple of Germans there. 
I suppose they’ve been sending out whatever the 
spies discovered.” 

“I suppose that’s been destroyed, sir?” 

“No. Fact is, I think the government may be 
able to use it. They’re sending down a man to- 
morrow who knows the German code. He’ll send 


170 


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out some false information — d’ye see? The 
Dutchies will think it’s straight and make use of 
it — and perhaps we’ll be able to lead them into a 
trap. Ha-ha ! ’ ’ 

Both the boys echoed his laughter. 

4 ‘ Just luck that we found the place. Do you 
know where the coastguard station is? Well, it’s 
as near due east from here as you could fly if 
you were a bird. And this wireless of theirs isn’t 
more than three hundred yards south of the coast- 
guard station! Isn’t that German impudence for 
you? To be doing that sort of thing right under 
our noses!” 

Karl could scarcely conceal his delight. He 
wondered if Heinrich, too, understood how com- 
pletely this too talkative Englishman was playing 
into their hands. For now, at last, Karl saw the 
way clear. He saw how they could make use of 
this information; how they could actually use this 
wireless plant to deal a mortal blow to England. 
If — But it was a big if, as he knew very well. 

“I suppose the place is under guard now, sir,” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


171 


he asked. “In case any of the Germans should try 
to go down there !” 

“Oh, yes, there’s a man there. But there’s no 
jolly fear of the Germans trying to get near it, you 
know. They know that we’ve rounded up the 
spies around here. They’ll keep away, never fear. 
And in the morning we’ll turn their own gun 
against them ! Ha-ha ! ’ ’ 

He was still laughing when he got up. 

“Well, I must be off,” he said. “Good-night, 

# 

boys! Hope you have a good time.” 

“Good-night, sir! Thank you,” they echoed. 
“Due east — and three hundred yards south of 
the coastguard station!” whispered Heinrich 
when they were alone. 

“So you do see the chance, too?” said Karl. 
“Oh, it sounds too good to he true!” 

“If we can only get one message off, Karl! 
Then they can catch us again, and I’ll he willing 
to stay a prisoner until the war is over!” 

“Well, it’s the best chance we’ll have, Hein- 
rich. We must try it, and as soon as we can. 


172 


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Have you had enough to eat? I tell you what — 
we’ll get them to put up a package of bread and 
cheese for us. We don’t know when we’ll get an- 
other chance to sit down for a meal again, you 
know. ’ ’ 

And so when they had paid their reckoning, 
they departed, feeling much better than when they 
had entered the inn, with full stomachs and 
enough bread and cheese to assure them of a good 
meal in the morning if they had no chance to buy 
a real breakfast. 

“Due east?” said Karl. “From what he said, 
I believe we won’t find a straight road. We had 
better fix our position by the stars. Then we shall 
be able to find the place, no matter how much we 
have to twist and turn about.” 

With their training as Boy Scouts, this was an 
easy matter. Scouts in every country are sup- 
posed to be able to find their way with only the 
signs that nature provides to help them. And so 
now they struck out, once they had fixed their 
destination in relation to their position and the 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


173 


fixed stars, sure that they would strike the coast 
at the right point. They had about seven miles to 
go, and perhaps more, but they set out at a good, 
swinging pace that would soon cover the distance, 
since there Tvas no time to lose. And they could 
not have been more confident had they been going 
from one well remembered spot to another in their 
own home of Dusseldorf. 

They followed the roads as well as they could, 
though they struck off across the fields whenever 
they seemed likely to save time by doing so. Soon 
they crossed the railway, and after that the strong 
smell of the sea in their nostrils grew more and 
more powerful. Before long they could hear the 
sound of the surf, and when they came .out at 
length upon the downs, and could look down over 
the cliffs to the breaking waves below, they were 
less than a mile to the south of the coastguard 
station, as they guessed its location. 

‘ ‘ Good ! 1 9 said Karl. 1 6 Now, unless we have lost 
our bearings entirely, we ought to come to this 
tower where the wireless is if we go straight along 


174 


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the downs. I think I can figure out just about 
where the coastguard station is.” 

“Yes, I believe we are on the right path, Karl. 
See, there is a little indentation before us, if w T e 
keep straight north. That would be about where 
the wireless was. We must go carefully now.” 

They walked on in complete silence. The night 
was very dark. Seemingly they were alone on 
the downs. They had half expected to meet pa- 
trolling coastguards, hut it was evident that, 
whatever England feared, invasion from the sea 
was not among her terrors. And then, just as 
they were within sight of a curious little round 
tower, that looked like a lighthouse, there came a 
sound that made them jump. It was the crash 
of a wireless spark. 

“Cra-a-sh!” it sounded, in the still night air, 
above the pounding of the surf. And again. 
Then a message roared out. 

“It’s the fool that’s on guard, playing with the 
spark,” whispered Karl. “Come closer. But I’m 
glad he’s doing it! I was afraid that, if we could 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


175 


get him out of the way, our spark might be heard. 
If he’s been doing this, it won’t matter. They’ll 
think he’s still at it.” 

The wireless ceased after a minute. By that 
time they were under the little window through 
which they could see a light shining. The sound 
of voices came to them. 

“If any of the German ships picked up that 
spark, they’ll wonder what’s wrong,” said one 
voice. 4 4 Give them something to think about, any- 
how. What, going so soon? Stay awhile! I’m 
afraid I’ll fall asleep watching this place to see 
that it doesn ’t blow away in the night ! ’ ’ 

“Sorry, old chap, but I’ve got to be moving 
along,” said another voice. “The wife’ll wonder 
where I am. As for you, it’s what you get for 
being a territorial. Do your blooming duty! 
Ta-ta!” 

“I’ll come down and see you off. My regards to 
the missus. I’ll be over for breakfast if they re- 
lieve me in time. ’ ’ 

“Right! We’ll save some for you if you’re 


176 


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late,” he said, like a very hospitable host. 

Karl moved silently to a position near the door, 
and Heinrich followed him. It was opened in a 
moment, and a young man came out. He paused 
to light his pipe, then he went swinging across 
the downs. Just inside the door another man, in 
the uniform of a territorial soldier, watched him. 
At last, with a sigh, he turned. He pushed the 
door behind him, but it did not shut — for Karl’s 
foot held it open. 

4 4 Beastly bore!” he said aloud, but to himself. 
44 As if this bally place needs to be watched to- 
night! I — ” 

Karl landed on his shoulders. Before he could 
cry out, his mouth was stuffed. In two minutes 
he lay trussed like a turkey, with angry, glaring 
eyes. He was speechless because he had been 
scientifically gagged. He was in no pain, but his 
mental state was plainly indicated by his furious 
eyes and his livid cheeks. 

44 We’re awfully sorry,” said Karl, pleasantly. 
4 4 I’d like to let you up on parole, you know, but 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


177 


I wouldn’t blame you a bit if you gave your word 
and then broke it. Because we’re going to make 
quite an important use of this wireless plant. I 
was so glad when I heard you sending just now 
and knew that it was in good order.’ ’ 

“Come on,” said Heinrich. “There may be 
others coming. We’ve no time to waste.” 

“You’re right, Heinrich,” agreed Karl. And 
they raced up the stairs to the wireless room. 

‘ 4 Hello ! New sort of wireless to me, ’ ’ said Karl. 
“Still I think I’ve read about it. Now see what 
she’s tuned to. Get the right pitch — the one we 
used on the Koenigin Luise. All right?” 

“All right,” said Heinrich, after a few moments 
of manipulation. 

“Cra-a-a-sh!” went the spark. 

Through the night the signal roared. 

“All stations!” called Karl, desperately, in the 
official code they had learned on the lost Koenigin 
Luise, trusting that it had not been changed. “All 
stations! I can only send. Relay to Imperial 
Chancellor, Berlin.” 


.178 


ON BOARD 


And he sent the mysterious message he had ob- 
tained from the spy in the train flying out over 
the North Sea. There was no way of knowing 
whether or not the message was received and un- 
derstood. He could only send it again and again, 
and pray that all would be well. Then he tapped 
out the story of how he and Karl had obtained the 
message, and a warning of the trick that the Eng- 
lish meant to play in the morning. And at last he 
sat back. 

“That’s all we can do!” he said. “We’ve done 
our best. Now we’ve got to try to escape. I 
think we can get down to the beach. If we can 
slip along there for a few miles, we may get away 
for a time. I think we’ll be caught, but — ” 

“We’ll give them a run for their money? Is 
that what you mean, Karl?” 

“Yes. I think we ’ve done that already, though ! 
Oh, if they have only understood the message!” 


CHAPTER XIV 


ON THE BEACH 

They lingered for a few minutes. Both had in- 
spected the sending mechanism of the plant care- 
fully. Now Karl had a new idea. 

“If we wreck this plant, they won’t he able t© 
use it to send any false messages to-morrow,” he 
said, grimly. “There must be a peculiar quality 
here — something that stations looking for it 
would recognize. A message from an English 
commercial station or from one of their big naval 
stations wouldn’t fool our people. That’s why 
they planned to send their false message in the 
code they got hold of from here. Come on!” 

It did not take long to reduce the delicate 
mechanism to utter ruin. Karl smashed the co- 
herers; he also disconnected and spoiled the re- 
markably powerful batteries. 

“I was wondering how they got along without 

a dynamo, and how they could operate a dynam# 
179 


180 


ON BOARD 


in a place like this,” said Heinrich. 4 ‘These bat- 
teries explain it. I never heard of anything like 
them. ’ ’ 

‘ ‘ They ’re a new invention — American, I think, ’ ’ 
said Karl. “It’s a great improvement on any- 
thing there ever was before. Edison was work- 
ing on the idea for years, I know, and there were 
other American inventors at work, too.” 

“Why do you suppose the station is only half 
equipped? Why isn’t there a receiving ap- 
paratus?” 

“There might be two reasons. They might only 
have had time to put up the sending machinery — 
and then there may be a receiving station some- 
where near here. They might have thought that 
there would be more chance of fooling the Eng- 
lish, and keeping them from finding them if they 
were divided up that way. ’ ’ 

“Isn’t there some arrangement like that in the 
Telefunken stations in America? The ones that 
get direct communication all the way across the 
Atlantic?” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


181 


“Yea, I think tliere is. I think the big station 
at Tuckerton can only receive, but not send. The 
station at Sayville can do both, though,” replied 
Karl. 

“ Where do those stations work? What Ger- 
man station are they in touch with, I mean?” 

“The great one at Emden.” 

“Karl, if there is a receiving station somewhere 
near here, they must have heard our messages! I 
wonder if there is? We might hear from them, I 
should think!” 

“Even if there is, it may be twenty miles away 
— or even more. And they wouldn’t be able to 
help us, Heinrich. They’d have to keep their 
own station going just as long as they could. 
Still I wish we’d thought of that sooner. We 
might have taken the chance of sending some mes- 
sages to warn them of what’s going on.” 

“Well, it’s too late now. I suppose we’d bet- 
ter go, if we are going.” 

“Yes. They weren’t looking very hard for us 
before — that is, they didn’t have a good descrip- 


1S2 


ON BOARD 


tioia of us. We really disguised ourselves when 
we changed our clothes. But when this guard 
here is found, the whole country will be looking 
for us. He must have had time enough to get a 
good idea of what we look like. Unless he’s an 
absolute fool, he will be able to describe our 
clothes and every detail of our appearance. So 
we have just as long to get away as it will take 
them to find him.” 

“And how long do you suppose that will be, 
Karl 1 ’ ’ 

“You can make just as good a guess as I can! 
Until morning, perhaps — unless that friend of his 
comes back to see him again. He said he would go 
over to his house for breakfast, you know, when he 
was relieved. ’ ’ 

“Seven o’clock perhaps, maybe even a little 
later. If we find that we can walk along the beach, 
we may get quite a long way before that. ’ ’ 

“Well, it’s time we started. Don’t forget that 
electric torch. We may find it useful down 
below.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


183 


They saw that their prisoner was still secure 
when they left the tower. He glared balefully at 
them, and they found it easy to imagine what he 
was trying to say — what he was thinking, that is, 
since his mouth was useless, on account of the gag. 

‘ 4 Seems a shame to leave him like that. He 
must be pretty uncomfortable, ’ ’ said Karl, with a 
look of remorse. “But it can’t be helped, of 
course. I want the one chance in a million we still 
have of going free. He’s really better off than we 
are, and he ought to know it. He’s sure to be 
found.” 

“What will they do to him, Karl, for getting 
caught that way?” 

Karl stopped suddenly, and laughed. 

“I never thought of that!” he said. “Hein- 
rich, we’ve got a better chance than I thought, I 
do believe! Do you think he’ll ever confess that 
he was surprised and tied up like that by a couple 
of boys? He’s not so very much older than we 
are, and it would hurt his pride too much! I bet 
he will say that at least a dozen men surprised 


184 


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Rim, and that he was only overcome after making 
a desperate resistance !” 

“Oh, you’re right, Karl! He wouldn’t admit 
that we had caught him so completely off his 
guard, would he? Then he may not describe us 
at all!” 

“That’s the chance I mean. If that’s so, we’d 
still better take to the beach. But I don’t think 
we need to worry about a careful search. The 
only danger would be that we might run into him, 
himself. Then he’d find some way of having us 
arrested, you know.” 

“Of course!” 

They had been going along the cliff. It seemed 
to go straight down, in a sheer fall, but Karl knew 
that if they were patient, they would soon find 
some path by which they could go down to the 
water’s edge. And after a little time they did 
find such a place. The descent was not easy, but 
with the aid of the light from their electric torch, 
they made it. 

“Let’s look around a bit, Heinrich,” said Karl. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


185 


“Do you see! The cliff really slopes in. You 
could drop a line from the top, and it would swing 
clear all the way down to the beach. And the 
beach is much wider than I thought. There must 
be nearly a hundred yards between the water and 
the cliff right here.” 

“Why is that, I wonder!” 

“It’s curious. For a long time, you see, the 
water ate away the land. I think that at one time 
at high tide the sea was right up to the cliffs here. 
Then there was some change, and now new land 
is being made again — this beach. A hundred 
years from now that line of cliff may be quite a 
long way inland, and they ’ll build a town here on 
the beach. And in other places, along this same 
coast, the sea is driving people away from their 
houses, just as it does along the channel coast. 
There are villages near Brighton, I’ve heard, that 
will sink into the sea some day . 9 9 

“If a few more mine layers and submarines do 
their work, the day will come sooner than they ex- 
pect, Karl. Because then our fleet will beat the 


186 


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English fleet, and after that it will bombard the 
English coast while our soldiers land ! ’ ’ 

“That day’s a long way off yet, I’m afraid, 
Heinrich. ’ ’ 

“Don’t you believe that we’re going to win! 
Why, our army must be near Paris by this time ! ’ ’ 

“I hope so, Heinrich. But you must remem- 
ber that really we don’t know anything about the 
war. All we know is what we’ve had a part in 
ourselves. You saw all the troops the French 
were rushing to the border. And we can’t use 
our whole army to fight them this time, as we did 
in 1870.” 

“Why not!” 

“Because the Russians are on the other side 
and we’ve got to fight them, too.” 

“Oh, the Russians!” Heinrich spoke con- 
temptuously. “None of our officers are afraid of 
them! The Austrians will look after them, Karl. 
Perhaps we will send a few regiments from 
Konigsberg to hold them back. But, even so, 
half our army is enough to beat the French.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 167 

“No country ever won a war yet that despised 
its enemies, Heinrich. I believe we will win, be- 
cause we are right. But I don’t think we will 
win easily. The French are good fighters. If 
they had had good generals before, we should 
never have won so easily. And why do you speak 
so of the Russians'? Think how many of them 
there are!” 

“Yes — and think of how easily the Japanese 
beat them! There were just as many of them 
then, weren’t there?” 

“No, there weren’t. Because Russia was fight- 
ing that war a good many thousand miles from 
home. She had to send her troops all the way 
across Siberia, into Manchuria. And she had just 
one line of railway, with only a single track, to 
carry them. Russia never had more than half a 
million soldiers in the field in that war. I don’t 
believe she had as many as that, -even at Mukden, 
the greatest battle in that war. Against us she 
can put two million in the field in less than a 
month. ’ ’ 


188 


ON BOARD 


“But one German is worth two Russians!” 
“Suppose he is? We would still have to keep a 
million men to fight the Russians, wouldn’t we? 
If we had those men, it would be easier to beat 
France. Perhaps we are winning there, even as 
it is. But we don’t know that. No, Germany has 
got to be ready to fight a long war, even a de- 
fensive war, if she must.” 

“But I hope we can come over here. I don’t 
like the English, Karl.” 

“I do. I like the English well enough, but I 
don’t like England. It is England that we must 
beat, really, after all — not France or Russia. The 
English would like to ruin our trade. They don ’t 
want us to have a great navy. I believe that is 
why we are warring on England now. ’ ’ 

“I would like to know what is happening, Karl. 
It seems terrible to think that our fathers and 
uncles are fighting, and that we don’t even know 
what they are doing, or where they are. ’ ’ 

“We know that they are serving the fatherland, 
Heinrich, and that we are doing that, too. That 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 185 

is all that any German can do now,” said Karl. 

While they talked they were making their way 
southward along the beach. 

“We are closer to the sea than we were,” said 
Heinrich, suddenly. 

“Yes. The beach is getting narrower,” said 
Karl, anxiously. “I was afraid of that. I hope 
that the water will not cut us off. * ’ 

But it was exactly that that happened. They 
had walked not more than a mile when they came 
to a spot where the sea beat directly against the 
cliffs. It was not shallow water, through which 
they could wade, either. They stared at one an- 
other in dismay. 

“No use trying to go on this way,” said Karl, 
finally. * 6 It looks to me as if this lasted for quite 
a distance — and we would run a great risk for 
no great gain if we tried to get around by swim- 
ming. We don’t know how far we’d have to g© 
before there was a beach again. ’ ’ 

“Perhaps we could get past this spot at low 


tide, Karl.” 


190 


ON BOARD 


“Perhaps we could — but we don’t know that. 
There may be deep water even when the tide is 
out. You see, we have no way of telling how deep 
the water is right in front of us here. There is a 
break in the cliff — I think there are rocks that we 
cannot see. It is very curious. And there is noth- 
ing to do but to go back and try it in the other 
direction. ,, 

“That would take us toward the coastguard 
station.” 

1 1 1 know. But it can ’t be helped. We ’ll have to 
take that chance, such as it is.” 

And so they began to walk back. They were 
quieter now; things seemed to be turning against 
them. They felt a great loneliness though neither 
quite wanted to voice the feeling. And Heinrich’s 
reference to the ones who were serving Germany 
on the firing line had brought sad thoughts. No 
German, as they understood, could grudge a life 
that was given for the fatherland. But the 
thought of the lives that must be sacrificed was 
saddening. There was no lack of patriotism in 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


191 


that thought, either. They knew that their 
fathers and many other relatives would be at the 
front, and they wondered how many changes 
there would be when the war was over. 

In their ears there was no sound but the crunch- 
ing of their own footsteps and the monotonous 
pounding of the surf. Seemingly no people ever 
traveled the beach at night. Heinrich spoke of 
that. 

4 4 In ordinary times there would be people here — 
not at night, perhaps, but plenty in the daytime,’ ’ 
said Karl. “I think there would be tents for 
bathers, too. But this is war. We are at war 
with Belgium, too, we heard. Think of Ostend! 
Do you remember how gay the beach there was, 
with thousands of bathers! You would not find 
one there to-day, I think.” 

Suddenly a dull roar shattered the silence of the 
night. They started. 

“That was a gun!” said Karl. “Out at sea! 
What can that mean!” 

Then in swift succession came other reports. 


192 


ON BOARD 


They stared eagerly out over the surf, trying to 
see through the veil of the night. Far down on 
the horizon, they saw a faint glare. 

“It looks like a burning ship!” said Heinrich. 
‘ ‘ Can it be our fleet ? ’ ’ 

“No — not so near,” said Karl. “Oh, look!” 

Directly before them, on the top of the cliff, a 
rocket sailed into the sky, and then another, and 
another. 


CHAPTER XV 


THE MESSAGE OF THE SEARCHLIGHT 

“What's that for?” gasped Heinrich. 

“They're signalling from the coastguard sta- 
tion, of course,'' said Karl. “They've got to do 
that for they probably can't tell what’s going on 
out there at sea any better than we can. And 
their job is to give the alarm if there's anything 
to show that the enemy is near the coast at all. 
Those rockets will bring out territorial troops to 
man the coast defences here.” 

Over the water the faint, distant glare died 
away. The firing stopped, too. There had been 
the one loud roar, and then a subdued murmur of 
firing. Now, from the coastguard station, a beam 
of white light flashed out suddenly. It swept the 
tossing waves before them, turned in, and ran 
along the beach. 

“Lie down!” cried Karl quickly, before the 

light reached them. “Face down! They'll never 
193 


194 


ON BOARD 


spot us at that distance. I think we are safe.” 

He suited the action to the word, and Heinrich 
was down as quickly as Karl himself. 

“ Here’s a fine mystery!” said Karl, as they lay 
there. The searchlights beam had swept over 
them without pausing and it was not sent back, 
as it would have been had they aroused suspicion. 
1 1 Don’t get up, Heinrich! Stay where you are! 
If the light does come back we must be here in 
the same position — just in case anyone did see us. 
They’d think we were bits of wood, but even these 
stupid English might get suspicious if a lump of 
wood got up and moved away!” 

“All right,” said Heinrich. “You say it’s a 
mystery. It certainly is one tome!” 

“I don’t see how any of our ships could get in 
so far, in clear weather, Heinrich, do you? And I 
don’t think there’s been any fog since the one 
yesterday morning — or is it still this morning? — 
that ended the poor old Koenigin Luise when it 
lifted.” 

“A submarine might have come through.” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


195 


“Yes, of course. But why? No submarine 
would want to come as far as this in this direction. 
It would have had to go through the line of big 
battleships to do that, and it wouldn’t have come 
any further. It would have stayed there and tried 
to sink as many as it had torpedoes for,” argued 
Karl. 

The coastguard station had begun to signal with 
its searchlight mow, moving the beam up and 
down. 

“All right. It’s safe enough to move now, I 
think,” said Karl. “We’ll stick as closely as we 
can to the cliff. Then we’ll be in its shadow, and 
there’ll be no chance of anyone above to see us, 
light or no light. ’ ’ 

“Where are we going, Karl? What difference 
does it make which way we go?” 

c 4 It doesn ’t make any ! But we ’d better keep on 
moving. If we stay still I shall go mad, I think. 
If we only knew what was going on there — hello!” 

He stopped short, staring at another searchlight 
that had suddenly flashed out, perhaps five miles 


196 


ON BOAED 


away, and at sea. Then, all excitement: 

“Karl! I never saw a searchlight like that — it 
is shooting down, not up!” 

“I know it. Can’t you understand? It’s from 
a Zeppelin! One of our airships! That’s what 
the firing was about, and all the excitement. It’s 
a Zeppelin raid!” 

“There must be more than one. That search- 
light is being used for signalling!” 

“You’re right, Heinrich! Watch those agnals 
— perhaps we can find out what’s going on at last! 
They’ll be in our code — the one we know!” 

Eagerly, intently, they watched the flashing 
searchlight. Suddenly Karl gave a cry. 

“Heinrich, it’s not to another Zeppelin that 
they’re signalling! It’s to us — to us or to the 
other Germans who were in the other part of the 
wireless station! They must have picked up our 
signals. They’ve been in trouble. They need a 
map. One basket was shot away, and the maps 
they had were lost! Quick, light a fire here! 
Gather up brushwood — make the fire as quickly as 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


197 


you can. Then get away from it, and hide!” 

“Why!” gasped Heinrich. “I couldn’t read 
the signals — not all of them — ” 

“Do as I say! I’ll be back as soon as I can! 
There ’s a chance that no one here will see the fire, 
but if they do, you must be away from it. Better 
yet, when you have made the fire, come up the 
path to the top of the cliff, and wait for me there 
in the bushes.” 

Heinrich was still dazed, but he began to gather 
up the material for a fire, and Karl, satisfied that 
he would obey, even if he did not understand, 
raced for the beginning of the path to the top of 
the cliff. 

What he planned to do was daring and desper- 
ate enough. He knew that the rockets from the 
coastguard station must have aroused many sol- 
diers by this time, and that there was more than a 
chance that some of them would have gone to 
the wireless tower where he and Heinrich had left 
their helpless prisoner. But it was there that he 
meant to go, running whatever risk there might 


198 


ON BOARD 


be. For there he had seen a map — a great ord- 
nance map of the eastern coast of England, that 
had evidently been used by the German occupants 
of the tower before they had been driven out by 
the English. That map he must get. The signal 
of the fire that he had told Heinrich to light was 
the one the Zeppelin had told him, or whoever 
might see and understand the frantic message of 
the flashing searchlight, to make. 

Karl knew that in telling Heinrich to make the 
signal he had burnt his bridges behind him. He 
had to make good now, or grave disaster might 
well befall the Zeppelin. Of himself he did not 
think. He went up the cliff at full speed, and 
came to the top panting after his rapid climb. 
But he did not even stop to catch his breath. He 
ran on toward the tower, knowing that every 
second counted, that the moment he lost might be 
the one that would spell all the difference between 
success and failure. 

Fortunately he encountered no one. In the road 
that ran two or three hundred yards from the 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


199 


edge of the cliff, he heard plenty of signs of life. 
Motorcycles were being driven hard; men were 
gathering. But he had reckoned on the time that 
would be needed for concentration. So long as 
the Englishmen were only on the road he did not 
mind. He could see the tower .now; it was still 
dark. And as he burst open the door he heard the 
stertorous breathing of the gagged and pinioned 
guard. He did not stop even to look at him. 

Instead, he raced up the stairs and into the wire- 
less room itself. He dragged down the great ord- 
nance map and rolled it up, together with half a 
dozen others. One, he found, with a little sob of 
delight, was a detailed map of London. That was 
the one that was the most important, the most 
urgently needed of all. And then, just as he was 
at the door, he heard a rush of many feet down- 
stairs! 

A man cried out. 

4 ‘ Good Lord, what ’s this f 9 9 

They were releasing the guard. Now the gag 
was out of his mouth. And still Karl stood above, 


20 ® 


ON BOARD 


rooted to the spot. He had failed after all! And 
by the slightest of margins. There were at least 
half a dozen men below and no chance for him to 
fight his way through. Even without arms, they 
could overpower him, and they would be armed. 
He groaned. And then he had an idea. 

He heard the man who had been gagged gasping 
out some sort of explanation. 

4 4 What? Now? He’s upstairs now? Come 
on!” 

That was the new, fresh voice of one of the 
rescuers. Karl raced to the door. Just in time he 
slammed it in their faces, and turned the lock. 
There was a bolt. He shot that, too. On the door 
there came a heavy pounding. 

4 4 Open up, in there!” cried the voice. 4 4 We’ll 
give you one minute — then we’ll fire through the 
door! Come on! You haven’t got a chance 
against us. We can send bullets through that door 
easily. Surrender ! ’ ’ 

Karl laughed to himself. Silently he crept 
across the room. The window, a wide one, was 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 201 

open. He had no means of guessing the drop to 
the ground. He had not been on that side of the 
tower and did not know, therefore, what sort of 
ground was below. But he did not hesitate. Still 
clutching the precious maps, he twisted and 
wormed his way through the window. He 
dropped the maps, and saw them, a patch of white, 
on the ground. And then, swinging by his hands, 
he drew up his feet and dropped. 

It must have been a sheer twenty feet, but every 
muscle was limp as he struck. He fell, and rolled 
over and over, but he was absolutely unhurt. 
In a moment he had his maps, and he was a hun- 
dred feet away when a crash of pistol shots made 
him pause and grin to himself. He heard, very 
faintly, the chorus of furious shouts that came 
from the tower a minute later; that meant that 
they had broken down the door and found him 
gone. 

But at that he tried to run even faster, for he 
knew that the moments of grace his trick had won 
for him were over now. The ground was soft, and, 


202 


ON BOARD 


while that had broken his fall and saved him, per- 
haps from broken bones, it meant that it would 
be easy for the men from the tower to see what he 
had done, and to track him. So now as he came to 
the path in the cliff where he had told Heinrich to 
wait for him, he slowed down only for a moment. 

“Wait there for me, Heinrich/ ’ he called. “I 
will come back another way. ’ ’ 

He raced on. For perhaps a hundred yards he 
ran on. He could hear the pack in hot pursuit, 
but the one thing he dreaded did not happen — the 
coastguards did not send their searchlight in his 
direction. Now, again, he had to take a desperate 
chance. He had seen something, earlier in the 
night, when the searchlight lighted up the cliff, 
that he remembered now and that had given him 
an idea. When he came to a stout bush he 
stopped. Clinging to the bush, he dropped over 
the sheer edge of the cliff. Until he was perfectly 
still, wholly steady, he hung. Then he released 
his hold and slid down slowly, with increasing 
speed, along the edge of the cliff. He slowed 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 203 

himself up as much as he could, using his hands as 
brakes, until the palms were torn and bleeding. 
And, about ten feet below the top, his feet struck 
a ledge of rock that jutted out — a ledge that the 
searchlight had shown him, earlier. For a mo- 
ment it seemed that he could not stop — that he 
would be pushed on, by his own momentum, away 
from the ledge that offered a precarious haven, 
and be hurled below. But just in time he man- 
aged to stop himself. At once he rose, and, bend- 
ing low, began to run back along the ledge. 

His danger was still great. At any moment the 
ledge might crumble beneath him or there might 
be a gap. But that chance, like all the others he'd 
taken, was necessary. He must go on now; there 
could be no going back. He had not gone more 
than twenty yards when he heard the pursuit 
above. 

“I saw him once — now he’s gone!” cried the 
voice that he had heard in the tower. 

“He can’t be far away. We’ll have him in a 
minute!” cried another man. 


204 


ON BOARD 


Karl grinned and went on. The ledge grew nar- 
rower. Once he had to swing across a space in 
which it disappeared altogether, hanging on to a 
bush that grew straight out from the side of the 
cliff. But after that it grew broader again. And 
behind him now, and growing fainter, were the 
sounds of the pursuers he had eluded. There was 
something else, too. He could hear a sound like 
the buzzing of a million flies. This time he knew 
what that sound was. The Zeppelin! It was 
coming! 

With a gasp he came at last to the path. The 
ledge had drawn him down. Now he raced up to 
the down. 

“ Heinrich !” he cried. “Are you there ?” 

“Here, Karl!” said Heinrich, steadily. “The 
Zeppelin is coming!” 

And then the great airship swooped down upon 
them. 


CHAPTER XVI 


IN THE AIR AGAIN 

‘ ‘ Here we are! Here — here!” yelled Karl. 

Of no use now to try to conceal themselves. 
Seconds would tell the story. In a moment they 
would either have succeeded or failed. And it 
was to be success. Out of the night the monster 
swept down, bumping along the ground. 

“Here!” called a voice — a voice they knew. 
And, for the second time, they were dragged up 
into the car of the Z-25 and came face to face with 
Captain Hartmann of the Imperial Flying Corps. 

“What — you?” he cried, amazement and de- 
light mingled in his voice. 

“Up — up!” cried Karl. “They will be here in 
a moment!” 

But the Zeppelin was already rising. From 

below, as she soared higher and higher there came 

a scattering volley. But the aim was bad, and in 

two minutes the great airship was far above the 
205 


206 


ON BOARD 


levels in which she was in danger from bullets. 
Then, and only then, was there time for talk. 

“Was it you who sent those wireless messages 
— with that cryptogram for the Imperial Chancel- 
lor? ” said Hartmann. “Berlin called to all sta- 
tions to acknowledge receipt. And the Chancellor 
wishes to know who got the message through. 
There is some talk of a decoration for whoever did 
it, I believe.” 

He plied them both with questions until he had 
the whole story out of them. 

“We knew the Koenigtn Luise was sunk,” he 
said. “Almost all were saved. Schraft is a 
prisoner. You are the only ones aboard who 
escaped.” 

“You meant the signals that we saw for us, 
didn’t you, Herr Hauptmann?” 

“For you — though I did not know who you 
were, naturally! — or for any of our people who 
saw and could give me the maps. Ah, the maps! 
I almost forgot! Let me see them.” 

Eagerly he unrolled them and examined them. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


207 


4 4 Ah, everything I needed !” lie said, enthusi- 
astically. “You have done well for Germany to- 
night 

“But how did you lose your own maps? You 
have had adventures, too, it seems V’ 

Not willingly, I can assure you. But we have 
done many things since we left you behind at 
Helgoland! First I flew over the British fleet far 
to the north, that guards the passage from Den- 
mark to Scotland. I plotted their positions, and 
then returned, to signal all that I had observed to 
two of our submarines. They bagged two 
cruisers and a pair of colliers. 

“I was back at Helgoland after that, when I 
got orders to cruise to the south and observe the 
damage that the mines the Koenigin Luise laid 
might do. We saw you sink, and later saw an- 
other English cruiser strike a mine. You were 
well avenged, you of the Koenigin Luise! And 
then came the strangest order I have ever re- 
ceived. I am carrying it out now. 

“I was to cruise in the North Sea, as near the 


208 


ON BOARD 


British coast as was safe, until I got certain orders 
by wireless from Emden. For hours we waited. 
While the light held, I was high — very high. Then 
we came down. Our wireless picked up your sig- 
nals. We heard your story of your escape, but 
you did not give your names. But I can tell you 
that we gave you a cheer, we up here, when we 
learned what you had done! I think your mes- 
sage for the Chancellor was the thing for which 
all had been waiting. For no sooner had that been 
acknowledged than we got our next orders.” 

“And what are they?” asked Heinrich. 

“Wait and see, impatient one!” said Hartman, 
with a smile. “We are going now to carry them 
out. You are invited to attend the performance. 
It will be worth seeing, I promise you! And it 
was then that by pure chance I almost lost my 
ship and my chance to strike the blow I had been 
ordered to deliver. There was a sudden hitch 
with our engines. Before I could regain control, 
we were going down, down — down like a plummet. 
And then, just as it was about to be too late, I got 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


209 


control, and we began to mount. But the mischief 
had been done. Just below us was a big cruiser, 
and she cut loose with a high elevation gun she 
happened to be carrying. 

1 ‘ I never believed before that a single shot could 
be so horribly accurate! It tore away our after 
basket — you can see what is left of it! There was 
np chance to rise. I had to fight back. We 
dropped a couple of bombs. And by good luck 
one went down a smokestack and blew her to 
pieces. It set her on fire and she sank while we 
were rising. She had a dozen smaller boats 
around, and they peppered away at us. But they 
couldn't touch us. It was that one shot that did 
the damage. ’ 9 

6 ‘ Then that was the glare we saw that aroused 
the whole coast!" said Karl. 

4 ‘Yes. And I can tell you it made me sick! In 
the service they don’t care how good an excuse 
may be, you know. If you have done what you 
were ordered to do, well and good. If you fail — ! ’ ’ 

He shrugged his shoulders. 


210 


ON BOARD 


“ After that, of course,’ ’ Hartmann went on, 
“they knew we were about, and I could risk my 
searchlight signalling. It was the only chance 
left. I might have been able to do what we have 
to do this night without the maps, but I could not 
be sure. But they had gone with the basket they 
shot away, and the only man in my crew wdio 
really knew London from above. I have never 
been in a ship that flew above London.” 

“Then they have really flown over London?” 
asked Karl. 

“Nine times, to be exact, before war was de- 
clared,” said Hartmann. “But it was delicate 
work. Most of the officers who had made those 
flights have been killed. It was bad luck that they 
should be in the bad accidents — the best men we 
had. If I had been one of those on the naval ma- 
chine that was wrecked off Helgoland, it would 
have made no great difference. But it had to be 
our greatest experts. And so I took the chance of 
signalling. When I saw your fire I was ready to 
dance for joy!” 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


211 


It was beginning to grow very cold, and Karl, 
looking over the side, saw that they bad reached 
a great altitude. The night was warm on the sur- 
face of the ground. But in these high places, 
where the air became highly rarified, the cold was 
intense. 

“ There are some warm coats in that locker,” 
said Hartmann, remembering that they were not 
clad for such work. “Put them on. Now I must 
study these maps. Ah, do you see that glare over 
there, to the southwest!” 

Far below was a dim, reddish light. 

“That is London!” said Hartmann. “I have 
never seen it before from here! I wish that we 
might stay. But we are making only a brief call 
to-night! We shall stay long enough to leave our 
cards, though.” 

He laughed, and fell to studying the maps. 
High as they were, Karl and Heinrich were soon 
able to make out the city that lay sleeping below. 
Even at night it was easy to see that this was a 
great city. The long, even lines of light marked 


212 


ON BOARD 


the streets. Here and there a larger patch of 
brightness showed where there was a square. 
Until they were almost directly over the city, 
there was no distinct marking of such lines; every- 
thing had blended into a common glare, even the 
huge searchlights that were criss-crossing con- 
stantly, moving here and there, searching the 
skies for just such a visitor as was now on its way. 

“Will the searchlights pick us out, do you 
think ? ’ ’ asked Heinrich. 

“They may. But even so, I don’t believe we 
have much to be afraid of. There is very little 
chance for a gun to hit a ship like this.” 

“Yet she has been hit — this very night.” 

‘ 4 But then she was flying low, and she was not 
under proper control. We are flying very swiftly 
now. They must aim a gun like the ones they use 
for firing into the air. And haven’t you ever tried 
to hit a moving target? It is hard, even with a rifle. 
Even when you know just which way the target 
w r ill move, as you do in the shooting galleries. 
When we are within range you will find that we 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


213 


dart here and there, swerving constantly — just to 
make us harder to hit. ’ 7 

“They would aim in front of us, wouldn’t 
they ? 9 7 

“Yes. That is all that they could do. They 
would have to aim at a spot where they expected 
us to be by the time their shell reached it. And 
then — we would turn and go somewhere else, and 
the shell would fall back and do more damage on 
the ground than in the air!” 

“The time is coming,” said Hartmann. He 
rose from his study of the map and went to look 
over the side of the car. “London! The heart of 
an empire! From that patch of light below more 
than half the world is ruled! It sends its orders — 
and men come from Canada, from Australia, from 
India, to fight for it. After this war, who knows? 
Shall Berlin succeed to London as the capital of 
the world?” 

“But we are going away from London!” cried 
Heinrich, suddenly. “We are curving away ! Aren ’t 
you going to blow it up? To destroy that city?” 


214 


ON BOARD 


“ Hardly that,” said Hartmann, with a smile. 
“We are not making war on the women and chil- 
dren who are lying in their beds down there, as 
our own women and children lie in their beds in 
Berlin and Hamburg — in all our cities! No! It 
would do us no good to destroy London. And 
that is a task for a hundred Zeppelins, not for one. 

“We shall strike at London, though, to-night 
— and with London, at the whole empire of Brit- 
ain. We shall strike at its heart, at its brain 
and its nerve centre. Have you ever learnt to 
box, you two!” 

“Yes,” they answered. 

“Well, then, when you are boxing another boy, 
you don’t hit his legs, his arms, his body — just any 
place you can hit, do you!” 

“No,” said Heinrich. “We were taught to 
place blows where they would do the most good.” 

“Yes. You strike at the point of the jaw, be- 
cause a man hit there loses his senses for a few 
seconds, and you win the fight. Or at the solar 
plexus, because that is where all his nerves are 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


215 


centered. You do not want to hurt his whole body, 
you only want to make it helpless. It is so that we 
make war. We do not want to destroy England ’s 
body. And so we shall strike at her heart and 
brain to-night. That’s why we are changing our 
course. Look! Do you see the river, below there !” 

They could not see the water, but the river itself 
was marked out by the double line of lights, 
crossed by another row of lights wherever there 
was a bridge. 

“Follow its course down toward the sea,” said 
Hartmann. “That is where we are going. Not 
all the way, but far enough. And we shall come 
back over London itself.” 

Now the Zeppelin swooped down, lower and 
lower. Skillfully, handling her as if she had been 
a catboat in a fair wind, Hartmann tracked his 
course through the air so as to avoid the glancing 
searchlights. 

“See,” said Karl, “the searchlights move al- 
most regularly, as if each man moved his in a 
certain arc always. There are dark places be- 


216 


ON BOARD 


tween them where the light never seems to strike.” 

Soon they were beyond the range of the search- 
lights. Again Hartmann studied his map. 

4 ‘ Look down, straight down,” he said. “You, 
Karl Adler! When you see a red light, mark it 
and call to me . 9 9 

Eagerly they peered down, Karl and Heinrich. 
It was Heinrich who saw the red light first. 
Hartmann gave up the steering control. 

“So — now we are right over it,” he said. 
“Half a degree to the west. Fire!” 


CHAPTER XVII 


THE BLOW FROM THE AIR 

Below them the red light winked out. And as 
it did so, Karl and Heinrich saw a man dropping 
something through a space in the bottom of the 
car, while the airship hovered, its flight stayed, 
like that of a hawk in mid air. Three times he re- 
leased his projectile. And then, with a sudden 
swift swoop, the Z-25 rushed forward. The next 
moment a deafening explosion stunned everyone 
on board for a moment into deafness. The air- 
ship, steady as a rock the moment before, shook 
and trembled. She was buffeted in a great gust 
of air that seemed to come straight up. 

Far below, where all had been darkness, raged 
a sea of flame. Explosion after explosion shook 
the air. Tongues of green and yellow flame shot 
up, only to die down again. 

“Woolwich Arsenal !” said Hartmann. “You 

have seen the last of it! There England’s guns 
217 


218 


ON BOARD 


were made. There her great reserve of war sup- 
plies was stored. It would take two years to re- 
build what we destroyed in less than as many 
minute s f ” 

Of the confusion and the panic that frightful 
explosion must have caused below they saw noth- 
ing. They could hear no screams and shouts 
even, though it took little enough imagination to 
picture the scenes, to guess at the horrible din 
that must be rising from the city about the shat- 
tered arsenal. 

“We have struck a blow as deadly to England 
as the loss of a whole campaign !” said Hartmann. 
1 1 It did not cost Germany a single life, and only a 
few could have been killed below. ’ ’ 

“But that explosion must have ruined the 
houses all about the arsenal itself,’ ’ said Karl. 

“There are no houses very near,” said Hart- 
mann. “None were allowed. That explosion 
broke all the glass for miles. It may have shaken 
down much plaster. But that is all. We have 
struck a deadly blow, yet no one can accuse us of 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 219 

cruelty, of inhumanity. But we have more to do — 
and little time in which to do it. I am not afraid of 
their guns, but I don’t want to meet an English 
aeroplane until we have finished our task. Keep 
watch for another red light on the roof of a house. 
It will mark our target again.” 

London was no longer a city of sleep. Every- 
where below them, as they swooped down again, 
now careless of the flashing searchlights that were 
playing more vividly than ever, lights sprang into 
view. The terrific explosion the Zeppelin had 
caused had aroused all London. And now a con- 
fused roar did come to them. It was the stirring 
of the angry city, as thousands and hundreds of 
thousands, panic stricken, rushed into the streets. 
Yet from where they swept along in the upper 
lanes of the air, the sound was no louder than 
that of a hive of swarming bees. And the city 
below them, with its millions, was even more help- 
less than the hive of bees in the presence of man. 

Like bees, this human hive below could sting. 
But its sting was guarded against; it was power- 


220 


ON BOARD 


less against the Zeppelin. There was an occa- 
sional sound of firing, as a searchlight’s glare il- 
lumined the airship for a moment. But not even 
the song of bullets about them came to check their 
flight. 

“ There is the red light!” cried Karl, at last. 

They were almost directly over the river. Now 
they swerved to the north and the west. Below 
them the red light persisted. 

4 ‘Beady, Forster!” called Hartmann, in sharp 
command. 

Again the man who had dropped the bombs 
with such deadly precision before prepared to do 
his task. His bombs lay at his hand; he opened 
the slide in the bottom of the car, and knelt, wait- 
ing the word to fire. It was a repetition of the 
previous attack. Once more the red light van- 
ished. And once more the Zeppelin hovered like 
a hawk. But now the glare of a dozen search- 
lights was concentrated on her, bathing every man 
in the car with light. 

“Fire!” said Hartmann. Down went the bombs. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


221 


Again there was an explosion, but one that 
sounded like the popping of a toy revolver after 
the discharge of a twelve-inch gun in comparison 
with the previous titanic roar. As a searchlight 
switched about suddenly to light up the scene be- 
low them, they could see a great building crum- 
bling. Its walls collapsed; the ruins caught fire. 

“There go the plans of England!” said Hart- 
mann, soberly. The Zeppelin was shooting away 
now, dodging the searchlights. And she was 
climbing steadily. 

‘ 1 What buildings were those that you de- 
stroyed?” asked Karl. “The war — ” 

“The war office and the admiralty, yes,” 
nodded Hartmann. “There they had all their 
plans, their codes, their reports from spies. At 
Woolwich we crippled the nervous system of the 
empire; here we reached its brain. My task 
is done — thanks to you!” 

“There are two aeroplanes below us,” said 
Heinrich, suddenly. “They are climbing in 
spirals. There are two men in each.” 


222 


ON BOARD 


Hartmann called an order. In a moment a small 
machine gun was trained on the two machines 
below, and a rain of bullets spat out at them 
through the night. 

“That is a pity — a great shame !” he said, in- 
dignantly. “We must defend ourselves. But if 
they allow non-combatants to remain in the streets 
they are the ones who will suffer most from the 
bullets.” 

“One of the J planes is hit — I can see it stagger- 
ing!^ cried Karl. “Ah, there it goes down! It 
is still under control, but it must take to the 
ground. ’ 1 

“Full speed ahead !” cried Hartmann. “We 
will give this fellow a race! He can never catch 
us, unless he has more speed than any aeroplane 
of which we have ever heard in England ! To the 
open sea — and so to the fatherland !” 

And so the airship turned and fled from the 
oity it had struck with such a deadly and paralyz- 
ing effect. Behind it, the glare of London faded 
into a dim glow. In the grey light that be- 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


223 


gan to grow stronger, with the rising of the snn 
behind them, those on the Zeppelin soon could 
see the open country, with the neat fields, below 
them. 

“ There are the Sussex downs!” said Hartmann, 
pointing downward. 4 4 Do you see that town? It 
is Brighton.” 

4 4 And the sea is beyond,” said Karl. 4 4 Once 
we have crossed that, we shall be safe — we shall 
have escaped from England!” 

4 4 England will have escaped from us, rather, I 
think,” said Hartmann, with a short laugh. 
4 4 They have cause to remember our visit! Well, 
they are punished now for making war upon us. 
And all because we would not wait to let France 
strike at us through Belgium, but struck the first 
blow ourselves!” 

4 4 Is that why we are at war with England?” 
asked Karl, in amazement. 

4 4 It is the excuse they give. Pah! We knew 
that France was ready to attack us — that she had 
her armies massed on the Belgian border. We had 


224 


ON BOARD 


guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium — yes! But 
could we keep to our word when we knew that 
France was ready to break hers?” 

6 ‘ Why, everyone in Germany has always known 
that France would attack us through Belgium 
when war came ! ’ ’ said Karl indignantly. 4 6 What 
else was there for us to do ?” 

“Ah, every German asks that! And yet, be- 
cause we defended ourselves by striking first, Eng- 
land makes war upon us. She has cut the cables, 
and all the world, we hear, denounces us for what 
we had to do in Belgium. But England, at least, 
has begun to pay . 9 9 

‘ i The English biplane is still pursuing us , 9 9 said 
a man, coming up to Hartmann just then. “Will 
the captain order a higher ascent? He is gaining 
a little.” 

“He is, it’s true!” said Hartmann, in surprise. 
“Yes, we will go up. So long as he is below us, 
he is harmless. Let him exhaust his petrol.” 

They were over the sea now. And suddenly 
one of the crew, grave concern plain in his bear- 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


225 


ing, came up to Captain Hartmann and saluted. 

“I have just discovered — a bullet must have 
struck it — ” he said. “The second reserve petrol 
tank has leaked. We have scarcely enough petrol 
to carry us to the French coast. ’ ’ 

“Thunder and lightning!’’ roared Hartmann. 
He sprang to verify the report for himself. “It 
is true!” he said, when he returned to his post. 
Then he smiled. “It will be a close call. But my 
work is done! If we are cheated out of our safe 
return, the fatherland can afford one Zeppelin and 
a few men for what we have accomplished behind 
us there!” 

Now the course of the Zeppelin was altered. 
She was headed toward the north, and one engine 
was cut out. 

“We will try to fly over Ostend and toward 
Brussels,” said Hartmann. “By going more 
slowly we shall save much petrol, and we may be 
able to make a landing within the German lines. 
If we flew straight on, we should have to cross 
half of France before we came to the German front 


226 


ON BOARD 


and that we could not do. I think the chances are 
against us, even now. Ha! You were on board 
the Koemgin Luise as wireless operators, were you 
not f I was f orgetting that ! ’ ’ 

“Yes,” said Karl, wondering. 

“Then I shall send my report. My own wireless 
operator was lost when that cruiser struck us. 
Send now, as I dictate.” 

Karl went to the key, and sounded the call. 

“What station can we reach?” he asked. 
“Your range is not great, is it?” 

“Try the field station at Brussels. The Kaiser 
is there — at least he was yesterday. He will wish 
to be the first to hear the good news we have to 
send. ’ 9 

“Very well, sir,” said Karl. 

There was trouble at first. But in five minutes 
he had his connection established. And word by 
word he sent the message that Hartmann dic- 
tated, until his own name and Heinrich’s came into 
the report. 

“No, Herr Hauptmann!” he said, flushing 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


227 


at that. “We do not deserve such praise — ” 

“Obey orders!” thundered Hartmann, but his 
severe tone was tempered by the twinkle in his 
eyes. ‘ ‘ I am the judge of that ! ’ 7 

And so Karl sent the words as the captain dic- 
tated them. 

After the message had been sent Karl sat wait- 
ing, the receiving instrument clasped about his 
head. For fifteen minutes or more there was no 
sound. Then his call ticked in his ear, and he 
answered mechanically. A moment later - he 
started. 

“Herr Hauptmann!” he said, in an awed voice. 
“A message is coming! The operator at Brussels 
says that it is signed by the Kaiser himself!” 

Hartmann straightened up. 

“Impossible!” he said. “It must be that the 
chief of staff — ” 

“Here it comes!” said Karl. He held up his 
hand, as if he had been the officer, to command 
silence. 

“ ‘We have received the glorious news of what 


228 


ON BOARD 


the Z-25 has accomplished. From the bottom of 
our heart we thank Hartmann for these tidings. 
It is our pleasure to confer upon him the Iron 
Cross of the first and second class, the order pour 
la merite and to order his promotion to the rank 
of major. Upon every man of the crew we confer 
the Iron Cross of the second class. We shall find 
other means of rewarding the volunteers Adler 
and von Kunst, of whose devotion we have already 
had proof. W& he - kft , Rex et Imperator!’ 99 

Every man in the car had crowded around, 
heedless of discipline, to listen. And now there 
rose a great cheer. 

‘ ‘ Hoch de - y j& ft kior ! ’ * they cried. They cheered 
Hartmann, newly promoted, by his new title of 
major. And, spontaneously, they raised their 
voices in the greatest of German battle hymns — 
Deutschland , Deutschland ueher allesf Wonderfully 
impressive the sound of the familiar strains must 
have been to the Englishmen, still struggling gal- 
lantly along below in their biplane. 

As the song ended, a man turned and raised 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


229 


the cry of 4 ‘Land ho!” in a glad voice. 

“The Belgian coast!” said Hartmann. He 
looked again at the gauge that showed the steadily 
diminishing supply of petrol, and shook his head. 
“There is Ostend,” he said, pointing to a smudge 
of smoke above the low, flat coast, and sandy 
beach. No hills rose behind it; it was a flat and 
uninviting country. 

Now the Zeppelin rose again, higher than she 
had been since her first approach to London dur- 
ing the night. In despair, the British biplane be- 
low gave up the chase now, and headed for Ostend, 
while the Zeppelin swerved to the north. 

‘ ‘ Our line moves back and forth. I don ’t know 
whether we shall reach it or not ! 9 ’ said Hartmann, 
anxiously. “From above it is so hard to tell. I 
know that soon we must descend. Our best chance 
is for our people to see us. Then they can ad- 
vance, perhaps, and enclose us as we descend.” 

They were over the land now. Below, the 
country was all flat. One problem was not present; 
a landing could be made almost anywhere. There 


230 


ON BOARD 


need be no selecting of a particular spot. They 
could stay aloft until the exhausted petrol forced 
them to descend. On a calm day they might have 
stayed up even after that, or if thei wind had been 
favorable, allowing it to push them further and 
further inland. But now a strong wind was 
blowing off the coast, and to stay up meant that 
they would be blown out to sea. 

“ There they come — ah, the brave troops !” 
cried Hartmann. 

Below, skirmishing was going on. The German 
line was being pushed forward as the Zeppelin 
descended. Plainly, their plight was understood. 
But it threatened to be a desperately close thing. 
And they came down at last in a field in which 
German and British marines were struggling. Out 
leaped the crew; there was a backward rush of 
the British. And Karl was carried back, a pris- 
oner! All the rest were safe! 


CHAPTER XVIII 


THE LAST ORDEAL 

Karl struggled desperately to free himself. But 
there was no chance. Two burly Englishmen 
had him fast, and they dragged him back with 
them. 

‘‘No tricks, now, young ’un,” said one. “We 
don’t want to hurt you. But you came out of 
that there airship, and we want to let the captain 
arsk you a few questions about her, if he wants 
to.” 

To continue his efforts to escape was useless. 

Karl saw that. And, after all, the main thing 

was that Hartmann had saved his ship. He and 

Heinrich were safe. He was not concerned much 

about himself. He did not think the English here 

were anxious to be burdened with prisoners. If 

the Germans were so close, it must mean that an 

attack in force might come at almost any moment. 

They might even let him go after a brief de- 
231 


232 


ON BOARD 


tention. So he accepted his fate as gracefully as 
he could. 

“All right,’ ’ he said, in his excellent English. 
“You can let go, if you like. I won’t try to get 
away. It wouldn’t be any use, anyway, would it?” 

“Thai’s the idea! We ain’t goin’ to hurt you, 
my lad!” said the marine, releasing him. “Just 
come along with us quietly.” 

And so Karl was taken back to Ostend. He had 
been there before, but Ostend in time of war was 
not the place that he remembered. The Plage, 
the great promenade along the beach, was 
crowded with soldiers and officers. On the beach 
itself was a group of big British sea planes, with 
a few scouting machines of French make for land 
service — aeroplanes that could fly faster than the 
sea planes, but lacked their stability and their 
usefulness when overwater work was required. 

Suddenly the two marines halted and saluted. 
An officer in naval uniform had come up to them. 

“Who’s your prisoner, my man?” he asked, 
sharply. 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


233 


“ Young Dutchman, sir. Got him off that Zep- 
pelin we tried to catch. All the others got away. 
We just grabbed him as we got our orders to fall 
back, sir.” 

The officer’s eyes lighted up. 

“From the Zeppelin?” he said. “All right. 
I ’ll take charge of him. You did well to get him. ’ ’ 

He dropped a heavy hand on Karl’s shoulder. 

“Come along with me, my lad/’ he said. “We 
want to know a few things about that Zeppelin 
and what you did over London!” 

“You don’t expect me to tell you, sir?” said 
Karl. 

“I don’t expect anything,” said the officer, 
grimly. ‘ ‘ But you may feel more talkative later. 
Do you know that you were captured within our 
lines — and that you’re not in uniform? Do you 
realize what that means?” 

Karl stared at him. 

“An enemy not uniformed is regarded as a 
spy. And I think you’re old enough to know the 
punishment of spies in wartime, if you are only 


234 


ON BOARD 


a boy. Think that over and then see if you don ’t 
feel more like answering questions when they’re 
asked.” 

Karl said nothing. He knew that, technically, 
the officer was right. And he knew, too, that if 
by any chance the things he had done before he 
and Heinrich had been rescued by the Zeppelin 
were discovered, his youth would not save him. 
He realized now that his position was far more 
serious than he had thought. He was almost sure 
to be sent back to England. There he might well 
be identified by the man he and Heinrich had 
tied up in the wireless tower. And then — 
But he was determined to tell nothing, no matter 
what they threatened. If he must die, he would 
die. It would be for the fatherland. 

His jailer led him into a hotel that, in the sea- 
son, and in times of peace, is one of the most 
luxurious in the world. Now it was being used 
as headquarters by the British force that occupied 
Ostend. They went to a room on the second floor, 
and the officer, his hand still gripping Karl’s 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


235 


shoulder, knocked loudly at a certain door. 

“Come in!” 

The officer pushed the door open and saluted a 
man who sat at a desk. 

“Prisoner captured from that infernal Zeppelin, 
Colonel,” he said. “Caught in our lines, not in 
uniform. I thought you might like to question 
him.” 

“Very good! I will. Now, sir — ” 

He glared at Karl. And then, just as he was 
about to speak again, a shower of glass broke 
over him, and a great hole was torn in the wall 
behind him — the wall that was directly on the 
roof of the piazza of the hotel. 

“What the — ” 

The officer rushed to the window. The man at 
the desk turned, brushing the blood out of his 
eyes from a cut made by the flying glass. For 
just one moment they forgot Karl. And in that 
moment he slipped through a door that was half 
open into a bedroom. There he crouched, ready 
to dive under the bed. It was a slim chance, but 


236 


ON BOARD 


the only one. They would never, he was sure, 
think that he would stay so close. They would 
look in the hall, everywhere else in the hotel, but 
not here. 

And he was right. His flight was discovered in 
a moment. Yelling, the officer who had brought 
him dashed into the hall. In a moment there was 
a hue and cry. And then Karl had another in- 
spiration. They might look under the bed — if so 
it would be the older man, the one who had been 
at the desk. He crouched behind the door that 
led into the bedroom, risking all, as he heard the 
colonel coming, breathing heavily. The colonel 
got down with some difficulty, for he was a heavy 
man, and looked under the bed. Then he rose, 
and went back toward the spot where the bomb — 
Karl knew that a German aviator must have 
dropped it — had shattered the room. In that 
moment Karl slipped under the bed. 

Soon the other officer came back, panting. 

“He must be somewhere in here!” he said. 
44 I’ve — 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


237 


1 ‘ He ’s not ! Got out while we rushed over to the 
window !” growled the colonel. “I’ve looked 
everywhere. Even under the bed in the next 
room. Oh, well, he’s only a boy. I’m not sorry 
he got away. Plucky youngster!” 

“I thought we might frighten him into telling 
us something,” said the officer. “But very likely 
he didn’t really know much, anyhow. I wonder 
how he happened to be aboard at all ! ” 

“Don’t know. I don’t care. Details don’t mat- 
ter. But, man alive, there’s only one thing to do 
now! We’ve got to do something to make up for 
what that Zeppelin did in London. Can you start 
to-night?” 

“You mean you’ve changed your mind, sir? 
You’ll let me try to do it?” 

Karl listened eagerly. 

1 ‘ I think you haven ’t one chance in a thousand, 
but if you’re willing to take that chance, why, go 
ahead! I’ve changed my mind because it’s so 
necessary to do something to offset what hap- 
pened in London last night!” 


238 


ON BOARD 


And then, while Karl listened, as he crouched 
under the bed, he heard the details of a plan that 
made his hair stand on end. It was daring, but 
Karl, listening to the young officer’s explanation 
of what it was he meant to attempt, saw at once 
the deadly truth — that the chance of success was 
not one in a thousand, but one of failure — that suc- 
cess, as a matter of fact, was almost certain. The 
very daring of the plan was what made it so dan- 
gerous — so dangerous to Germany. 

And here was Karl, compelled to listen, to know 
what was to be done, and utterly helpless — abso- 
lutely unable to do anything to stop it! 

“All right. You may try it, then. You’ll start 
at midnight, you say?” 

“Yes. I can’t be ready earlier.” 

‘ ‘ Good luck go with you ! And you understand 
— no unnecessary violence. If you get your man, 
bring him here safe and unharmed if possible. 
But if it’s a question between his life and yours, 
or of bringing him here dead or not at all — or 
even of leaving him somewhere dead, if you find 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


239 


it impossible to bring him through, why — ” 

“I think I understand, colonel.” 

“All right. Send my orderly in. You ’ll find 
him in the corridor somewhere.” 

“I must escape! I must warn them!” 

Every throbbing nerve in Karl’s body cried 
the words as he lay there. But how? From the 
hotel he might escape easily enough. But to get 
out of Ostend, and that before midnight — there 
he seemed to face the impossible. With the Ger- 
man lines so close, there must be a cordon of 
sentries outside the town. But he must make the 
attempt. He felt, as he lay there, that it would 
be far better to be shot by a sentry as he tried to 
slip through the lines, than to make no attempt 
to avert the absolutely irreparable disaster that 
was threatened. 

It seemed to him, as the hours crawled by, that 
he was never to have the chance even to get out 
of the room in which he was imprisoned. There 
was a ceaseless stream of visitors to the next 
room, where the colonel sat at his desk attending 


240 


ON BOARD 


to the routine business of the place. But at last 
it did stop, and the colonel came in, his shoes 
creaking, to wash his hands and prepare for din- 
ner. Karl had begun to fear that the man meant 
to eat at his desk. But he went out at last, and 
Karl heard the key turned in the door. In a 
moment Karl was outside on the balcony. He 
slipped down a post at its far end a minute later, 
crossed the Plage boldly, and, once he was on the 
beach, slipped into one of the deserted bathing 
machines — the bathhouses on wheels that are 
drawn into the water by horses in the bathing 
season. 

By pure chance, since he had had no time to 
make a selection, Karl had stumbled into a ma- 
chine that was near the part of the beach where 
the British hydro-aeroplanes were parked. He 
could look from the window of his machine and see 
them. Every now and then an aviator went to 
the machine he used, started the motor and took 
the air, flying away. Sometimes a machine came 
down. But the thing that struck Karl most 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


241 


forcibly was that the machines were not guarded. 
He began to understand that, however, after a 
little thought. He had seen no civilians at all 
along the Plage. Plainly, then, that promenade 
and the beach were reserved for soldiers, sailors 
and marines. But he was on the beach — and no 
one suspected it! Why, then, shouldn’t he seize 
one of the sea planes and so make his escape ? 

Karl himself had never operated an aeroplane. 
But he had been up many times, for Dusseldorf 
is a famous aviation centre in Germany, and in 
addition to having seen men work the machines, 
Karl had studied the systems of control and flight 
of every known make of aeroplane. He knew 
these English machines thoroughly, in theory. At 
any rate, it was worth the trial, but not until later. 
Now there were too many men about the ’planes. 
Twice, as he decided that it was safe to make his 
attempt, he was driven back to his shelter by the 
arrival of machines from the air. But at last the 
coast was clear. 

He walked boldly up to the first of the machines. 


242 


ON BOARD 


A quick glance showed him that no one was ob- 
serving him. He started the motor. And not until 
he was well up, and flying over the sea, did the 
first challenge ring out. A shot followed, but he 
was heading out to sea, since that presented the 
quickest way of getting out of range. Not until 
he was safe on that score did he turn and begin 
to climb. 

Had he had more time to think of what he was 
doing, had his mission been less important, Karl 
might have been frightened. But as it was, too 
much depended upon him. He could not fail! 
And he did not. He was two thousand feet in the 
air when he passed over Ostend again, and in the 
darkness, safe from detection, much more so from 
bullets. In the country over which he had still 
to fly, before he reached the German lines, he 
felt that he was safe, too, for his machine would 
be taken for that of a friend. 

But then he thought of the sequel to that — that 
any Germans who saw him would think it was a 
British machine in which he was flying. That 


THE MINE-LAYING CRUISER 


243 


thought brought him down as soon as he felt sure 
that he had passed within the German skirmish 
line. He could not risk his life now until he had 
told what he had overheard. And so, abandoning 
his machine in the field in which he landed, he 
went on until a German sentry challenged him. 

He told his story to the officer to whom he was 
taken, and was laughed at. But he was so in- 
sistent that he reached a superior officer, who de- 
cided to take no chances. 

“I shall send you to Brussels under guard,’ ’ 
said this officer. “But I shall telegraph your 
story, and proper precautions will be taken. 
Major Hartmann is there. I think you tell the 
truth — for otherwise you could not know of what 
happened on the Zeppelin. But I am doing my 
duty, in any case.” 

There was no need to search for Hartmann in 
Brussels. He was waiting in the station, and 
Heinrich von Kunst was with him. At the sight 
of Karl, Hartmann brushed the escort aside. 

“I thought you were lost, mein Karl!” he 


244 


ON BOARD 


cried. “ But it was a good hour — that in which 
3 r ou were captured! Your warning came in time! 
The was not alone, as he has been each 

night before. And instead of capturing the Em- 
peror, that Englishman is now a prisoner him- 
self! I have orders for you. In the morning the 
Kalfiar will receive you and Heinrich von K»nst — 
the Kaiser in person ! * ■ 5 ovm-C £*nrvtA ? 


THE END. 


|jjM n / el 


t 


\ 1 


I • 



/h v-F- 0 h 

/"VIA -'P" U C 


THE BRADEN BOOKS 


FAR PAST THE FRONTIER. 

By JAMES A. BRADEN 

The sub-title “ Two Boy Pioneers ” indicates the nature of this 
story — that it has to do with the days when the Ohio Valley and 
the Northwest country were sparsely settled. Such a topic is an 
unfailing fund of interest to boys, especially when involving a 
couple of stalwart young men who leave the East to make their 
fortunes and to incur untold dangers. 

“ Strong, vigorous, healthy, manly .” — Seattle Times. 

CONNECTICUT BOYS IN 
THE WESTERN RESERVE 

By JAMES A. BRADEN 

The author once more sends his heroes toward the setting sun. 

In all the glowing enthusiasm of youth, the youngsters seek their 
fortunes in the great, fertile wilderness of northern Ohio, and 
eventually achieve fair success, though their progress is hindered 
and sometimes halted by adventures innumerable. It is a lively, 
wholesome tale, never dull, and absorbing in interest for boys who 
love the fabled life of the frontier .” — Chicago Tribune. 


THE TRAIL of THE SENECA 

By JAMES A. BRADEN 

In which we follow the romantic careers of John Jerome and 
Return Kingdom a little farther. 

These two self-reliant boys are living peaceably in their cabin 
on the Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the 
woods nearby. The Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means 
death at the stake if he is captured. They decide that the Seneca’s 
charge is made to shield himself, and set out to prove it. Mad 
Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes to their aid, but all their efforts 
prove futile and the lone cabin is found in ashes on their return. 

CAPTIVES THREE 

By JAMES A. BRADEN 

A tale of frontier life, and how three children — two boys and a 
irl — attempt to reach the settlements in a canoe, but are captured 
y the Indians. A common enough occurrence in the days of our 
great-grandfathers has been woven into a thrilling story. 

BOUND IN CLOTH, each handsomely Cl 
illustrated, cloth, postpaid - ■ v ■ ■ 


Z5he Saalfield 'Publishing Co. 

AKRON, OHIO 



FICTION FOR BOYS 



By JEAN K. BAIRD 
Illustrated by R. G. Vosburgh 


At The Hall, a boys’ school, there is a set of boys 
known as the “Union of States,” to which admittance 
is gained by excelling in some particular the boys deem 
worthy of their mettle. 

Rush Petriken, a hunchback boy, comes to The Hall, 
and rooms with Barnes, the despair of the entire school 
because of his prowess in athletics. Petriken idolizes 
him, and when trouble comes to him, the poor crippled 
lad gladly shoulders the blame, and is expelled. But 
shortly before the end of the term he returns and is 
hailed as “little Rhody,” the “capitalest State of all.” 

CLOTH, 12 mo, illustrated, - $1.50 



^Mrs. A. F. RANSOM 
Illustrated by Henry Miller 


Four boys, all bubbling over with energy and love 
of good times, and their mother, an authoress, make 
this story of a street-car strike in one of our large 
cities move with leaps and bounds. For it is due to 
the four boys that a crowded theatre car is saved from 
being wrecked, and the instigators of the plot captured. 

Mrs. Ransom is widely known by her patriotic work 
among the boys in the navy, and she now proves herself 
a friend of the lads on land by writing more especially 
for them. 

CLOTH, 12 mo, illustrated, - $1.50 
Books sent postpaid on receipt of price. 


£>he Saalfield Vtxblishing Co. 

AKRON, OHIO 


FICTION FOR GIRLS 


BETTY, The SCRIBE 

By LILIAN TURNER 
Drawings by Katharine Hayward Greenland 

Betty is a brilliant, talented, impulsive seventeen-year-old girl, 
who is suddenly required to fill her mother’s place at the head of a 
household, with a literary, impractical father to manage. 

Betty writes, too, and every time she mounts her Pegasus dis- 
aster follows for home duties are neglected. Learning of one of 
these lapses, her elder sister comes home. Betty storms and refuses 
to share the honors until she remembers that this means long hours 
free to devote to her beloved pen. She finally moves to the city 
to begin her career in earnest, and then — well, then comes the 
story. 

'* Miss Turner is Miss Alcott’s true successor. The same healthy, 
spirited tone is visible whidh boys and girls recognized in LITTLE 
MEN and LITTLE WOMEN.” — The Bookman 

CLOTH, i2mo, illustrated, - $1.50 

Elizabeth Hobart 
act Exeter Hall 

By JEAN K. BAIRD 

Illustrated by R. G. Vosburgh 

A spirited story of every-day boarding-school life that girls 
like to read. Full of good times and girlish fun. 

Elizabeth enters the school and loses no time in becoming one 
of the leading spirits. She entertains at a midnight spread, which 
is recklessly conducted under the very nose of the preceptress, who 
is “ scalped ” in order to be harmless, for every one knows she 
would never venture out minus her front hair ; she champions an 
ostracized student ; and leads in a daring plan to put to rout the Se- 
niors’ program for class day. 

CLOTH, i2mo, illustrated, - $1.50 
Books sent postpaid on receipt of price. 


15 he So. a {field “Publishing Co., 

AKRON, OHIO 


BOOKS FOR BOYS 


WINFIELD SERIES: 

LARRY BARLOW’S AMBITION 
A YOUNG INVENTOR’S PLUCK 

These two books of adventure for boys, by the popular author of the 
Rover Boys’ Series, have attained an enviable reputation, and are read by 
thousands and thousands of boys everywhere. 


CASTLEMON SERIES: 

A STRUGGLE FOR A FORTUNE 
WINGED ARROW’S MEDICINE 
THE FIRST CAPTURE 

Harry Castlemon ranks among the best of the writers of juvenile fiction. 
His various books are in constant and large demand by the boys who have 
learned to look for his name as author as a guaranty of a good story. 


BONEHILL SERIES: 

THE BOY LAND BOOMER 
THREE YOUNG RANCHMEN 

Stories of western life that are full of adventure, which read as if they hap- 
pened day before yesterday. 

RATHBORNE SERIES: 

DOWN THE AMAZON 
ADRIFT ON A JUNK 
YOUNG VOYAGERS OF THE NILE 
YOUNG CASTAWAYS 

For boys who have had their fill of adventures on land, the Rathborne 
books are ever welcome. They make one feel the salt breeze, and hear the 
shouts of the sailor boys. 


OTIS SERIES: 

TEDDY MESSENGER No. 48 

TELEGRAPH TOM DOWN THE SLOPE 

James Otis writes for wide-awake American boys, and his audience read 
his tales with keen appreciation. 

Each of the above books bound In Cloth, Art 

Illustrated, 12mos, postpaid, - - y I .UU 


Uhe So, alfi eld T*ti b lishing Co., 

AKRON, OHIO 



The 

Children's Encyclopedia 

The young child asks of the parent explanations of the 
most simple phenomena and of the most profound 
problems. And in too many cases the parent is 
unable to answer. This work will overcome 
that difficulty. It tells “the reason why” 
simply, plainly and fully so the child 

do WC dream ? may understand. 

IT IS A VERITABLE ENCY- 
CLOPEDIA, ANSWERING 
QUESTIONS THAT 
ARISE DAILY IN 

What makes the rainbow? ^ THE HOME * 


What is thunder? 


Why dosea-shells“roar"? 

Why is the sea salt? 

Why are the lips red? 
Why have fish 
fins? 


“Armed 
with this 
little manual, 
which is admirably 
indexed and profusely 
illustrated, one could 
face the most inquisitive 
stranger or even his infant son 
with perfect equanimity.” 

— San Francisco Chronicle 


BOUND IN CLOTH, POSTPAID PRICE 25c 
BOUND IN LEATHER, POSTPAID PRICE 50c 

The SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO 

AKRON, OHIO 


FLOWER BABIES 


ILLUSTRA- 
TIONS BY 

IDA NAY 
ROCKWELL 


One Hundred Flowers Shown in Their 
Natural Colors 

Each one of the hundred pages in Flower Babies carries 
a verse about children and flowers. The drawing on the 
page bears out the flower idea, showing the blossoms in the 
beautiful colors Nature gives them as they grow. 

There is so much genuine love in the way these verses 
and pictures speak that the book has won the warmest of 
welcomes from the children. 

WHAT OTHERS THINK 

“The idea of the book is good — to familiarize children with the 
common flowers.”— New York Globe. 

“ Its brilliancy of color would be sufficient to attract the childish eye 
were it not in its versified text amusing and clever.”— Boston Transcript. 

Quarto, Bound in Boards, Every Page in Colors. 

Postpaid Price, $1.25 

The Saalfield Publishing Co., Akron, Ohio 



We 

Peter Rabbit Series 


TWELVE 

NURSERY 

FAVORITES 



PUT IN 
ATTRACTIVE 
DRESS 


The nursery stories that have been told for centuries 
past and which will be repeated to wondering children for 
generations to come, have been made into handsome books. 
Besides the old, old tales, there is the popular Peter Rabbit, 
and a sequel has been written to it with the same master 
touch that so charms every child. 

There are twelve full-page illustrations in each volume 
in colors, and each book has a beautiful lining paper with 
appropriate design. The covers are different for each book, 
and all lithographed in four colors. 


TITLES 


PETER RABBIT 

PETER RABBIT AND HIS PA 

LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD 

JACK AND THE BEANSTALK 

CINDERELLA 

OLD MOTHER HUBBARD 


THE THREE BEARS 

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT 

TOM THUMB 

BABY’S BIBLE ABC 

MOTHER GOOSE 

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS 


Each Bound in Boards, 5 x 7 inches, Illustrated 
in Colors, Postpaid Price 25c. 

The Saalfield Publishing Co., Akron, Ohio 


We 

BillyWhiskers Series 

BY 

FRANCES TREGO MONTGOMERY 

Billy Whiskers — frolicsome, mischief- making, adven- 
ture-loving Billy Whiskers — is the friend of every boy and 
girl the country over, and the things that happen to this 
wonderful goat and his numerous animal friends make the 
best sort of reading for them. 

As one reviewer aptly puts it, these stories are "just 
full of fun and good times,” for Mrs. Montgomery, the 
author of them, has the happy faculty of knowing what the 
small boy and his sister like in the way of fiction. 

TITLES 

BILLY WHISKERS BILLY WHISKERS’ GRANDCHILDREN 

BILLY WHISKERS’ KIDS BILLY WHISKERS’ VACATION 

BILLY WHISKERS, JR. BILLY WHISKERS KIDNAPED 

BILLY WHISKERS’ TRAVELS BILLY WHISKERS’ TWINS 

BILLY WHISKERS AT THE CIRCUS BILLY WHISKERS IN AN AEROPLANE 

BILLY WHISKERS AT THE FAIR BILLY WHISKERS IN TOWN 

BILLY WHISKERS’ FRIENDS BILLY WHISKERS IN PANAMA 

BILLY WHISKERS, JR. AND HIS CHUMS 

Each Volume a Quarto, Bound in Boards, Cover and Six 
Full Page Drawings in Colors, Postpaid Price $1.00 

The Saalfield Publishing Co., Akron, Ohio 





RALPH MARLOWE 

A Tale of the Buckeye State 

By 

DR. JAMES BALL NAYLOR 

Author of “THE SION OF THE PROPHET" 


“There is an atmosphere 
about the story of RALPH 
MARLOWE-the picturesque 
atmosphere of quiet, rustic 
southeasternOhio, and there 
is an equal measure of deli* 
cious humor and delicate 
pathos about it also. 

Get this novel and read it — 
The time will be well spent.” 

— North American, 

Philadelphia. 


** Dr. Naylor has con. 
structed a very readable 
story. He has been remark, 
ably succeessful in transfer, 
ring to the canvas of fiction 
Ohio farmers and village 
folk, and the story is worthy 
to take its place beside the 
best of those written in re. 
cent years which take as 
their particular task the pic. 
turing of life in rural dis> 
tricts.” 

A merican Monthly Reviews 
of Rewiews. 


Handsomely bound in bright red cloth, gold lettered, 
emblematic cover design in white and gold, 12 mo., $1.50 


THE SAALFI ELD PUBLISHING 
COMPANY « « « Akron. Ohio 



SEA TALES 

DOWN THE AMAZON 
THE YOUNG CASTAWAYS 
ADRIFT ON A JUNK 

YOUNG VOYAGERS 

OF THE NILE 

By ST. CEO RGB 1,‘ATIIB OKNB 

St. George Rathborne is a name that is familiar to every boy who revels 
in adventures by sea. One fairly smells the salt breeze and hears the lapping 
of the waves as the pages of these books are eagerly turned. 

This clever inventor of adventures in strange climes for boys, carries his 
heroes to Egypt and to South America, to the Caribbean and the pirate-haunted 
islands of the Eastern Archipelago, does not stick at improbabilities, but has 
the true romantic and adventurous touch which boys enjoy. 



Down The Amazon 

Ry St. George Hathborne 

The story of a wonderful cruise in a canvas canoe, giving the adventures 
of a sixteen-year-old American lad and a Peruvian guide, floating in an open 
canoe from the Andes country down the majestic Amazon. They encountered 
serpents, wild beasts, and wilder natives, escaped the dangers of storm and 
flood, to be wrecked at last within reach of port. 

Every line fraught with interest. 

246 pages, $1.00. 














































































































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